Water Element and Wu Wei (Effortless Action)

I identify with fire.

I love summer, saunas, baths, and sweating. Over time, the desire for fire-affected my yoga practice by becoming attached to the āsanas and pushing myself in excess.

In my life, the fire began to consume my temperament by applying pressure and perfectionism and doing too much to the point of burnout.

So, I have always known that I had too much fire, a yang imbalance, but in my late twenties, I couldn’t let go of the “need to achieve.”

Fast forward ten years later,

I have incorporated modalities and practices consistently to help me slow down. The shift didn’t happen immediately; it happened gradually. Five Element Chinese Medicine and Qi Gong have taught me to be like nature by witnessing them through the seasons. I am pleased to say this is the first winter of my whole life (I grew up in Colorado even though I left for a decade) that I fell in love with the season.

The funny thing is that I have always been drawn to water. It was like the elements within me were telling me to “be like water,” but what does that mean? If I ponder water, it is versatile; it has great potential; it can rage, swell, flood, destroy, and be soft, still, frozen.

The symbolism in water/winter has many lessons.

One imagery is a stone sinking in a lake; the heaviness (yin) quality is the ability to “go deep,” assessing one’s subconscious tendencies and walking up to fear (water element out of balance). What develops when we embrace the dark, still waters is will and perseverance aligned with the truth of one’s being, which gives one the courage to become the imagery of the seed lying dormant in the soil, frozen, collecting vital life force, qi, potency.

The lesson of the hibernating seed is that sometimes it is better to stand still and wait instead of the natural impulse to react.

When uncertainty and chaos (weiji) happen, the natural human tendency is to make change happen so one can swiftly move out of the discomfort. In the book Five Spirits Alchemical Acupuncture for Psychological and Spiritual Healing, Dechar states, “the only hope is to surrender to the yin and to allow the powerful tides of change to carry us to the next stage of our lives. By doing nothing, by waiting and by the faith, the energies of individual will and the limited self are submitted to the transforming energies of chaos” (Dechar, 2006).

We train the body and central nervous system to be patient and wait in chaos by two means:

Begin with feet shoulder-width apart. Connect to the acupuncture point of the water element called kidney one or the babbling brook. Refer to Diagram 1.1. When you breathe, inhale the earth’s yin: density, dark, heaviness from the babbling brook to the lower belly.
The lower abdomen is the lower Dan Tien, three finger widths below the navel and three finger widths in. Fill the lower belly on the inhale and allow the pelvic floor to soften. On the exhale, let your bones drop into the earth joints soft.

Over time, when you apply these two techniques, it will become natural, and it will bring you into Wu Wei the ease in action or the effortless action. Wu Wei is the ability to relax and find relaxation in every effort of one’s life. I have noticed a significant change in my “doing” with these two techniques.

Diagram 1.1

References: Dechar, Lorie. Five Spirits Alchemical Acupuncture for Psychological and Spiritual Healing. New York: Chiron Publications/Lantern Books, 2006.