Good day everyone! I’m Renata Silveira, I am a Chinese Medicine Practitioner, a Medicine Woman and the Architect of the Esoteric. My life purpose is to shine light and add brilliance in people’s lives. So far, I have lived an incredible adventurous life that was no short of challenges and triumphs. I have moved to a different country, travelled to many countries, worked as an architect, found love, created a family, went to Chinese Medicine school in my 40s, became an entrepreneur, faced many physical and emotional traumas of my own and my loved ones, and found my way of living fully at all stages of my life. I have also met amazing mentors and coaches who helped me reconnect with the whole me and am now on a mission to help many people do the same.
So, let’s start!
Everything, visible, invisible, the smallest representation of being, the largest representation of being, anything we see, feel, or just know exists, has a polarity. That’s part of the principal of Yin and Yang, which we have been learning more recently in the Western part of the planet, which is a philosophical construction used in the Eastern for millennia. Yin is associated with darker, colder, passive, introspective, quieter, resting, downward aspects of things and Yang is associated with brighter, hotter, stimulating, exciting, vigorous, outward and upward aspects of things.
All creations are based on Yin and Yang, and the balance of these aspects is the goal of everything. However, balance is a dynamic and not a static state. So, it’s correct to assume that we are all in a constant game of attraction and repulsion, in a constant search for balance and harmony.
It’s fascinating how we can simplify existence using this principal. And today I’m here, expressing myself in an attraction and repulsion way, trying to connect and find balance in my life and yours, just like all the atoms that are part of my physical body, and all the cosmic bodies in our universe are doing at this exact moment.
Almost a decade ago, I had an “Eat Pray Love” moment. And when I was in that moment everything came into a still, and I was able to move into a higher perspective and see what was possible for me. So, I left my career in architecture, and while my two daughters were going to preschool and elementary school, I put on a backpack and went back to school myself, to learn the art of Chinese Medicine.
I was looking for something that would fascinate me. And I found it. I’m still fascinated about the wisdom of the Eastern and believe that I will continue to be until my last day in this planet.
Today I’m here to talk a little bit about the 5 elements of Chinese Medicine, and how they can empower you to embody the magic of being the best representation of who you are, that is possible to you.
The questions to start this talk are: Why do I have the troubles that I do? Where did it come from? How can I understand, overcome, and prevent it from recurring?
That’s how knowing the principles of the 5 elements of Chinese Medicine, understanding what is predominant in your constitution becomes key in staying healthy in your body, mind and spirit, thriving, and even transcending to extraordinary experiences.
The 5 elements are a representation of the primal forces within the universe, which relates to tangible and intangible aspects of all that is, and how everything relate to each other.
It’s amazing and almost incredible how existence can be simplified this way, and fascinating how the complexities of our life experiences can be simplified in a way that allow us to remove ourselves from crisis, stress, anxiety, panic, disease and deterioration of our physical bodies, and move into harmony, ease, acceptance, contentment, contemplation, appreciation and awe.
This is an exempt from the book Between Heaven and Earth, from Harriet Beinfield and Efrem Korngold: The rocks in the river can shift, redirecting the water’s course, altering the shape of the riverbanks, but inexorably the river, twisting and turning, follows the gravitational pull from the mountains to the sea. In that sense the river, like our identity, does not change its fundamental direction of flow. How we live out our lives my shift and vary, but the primacy of one’s element as our organizing force remains; we change, but our type does not. One’s element fashions the context within which we evolve and acts as our primary frame of reference, guiding our instincts and how we live them.
That’s how helpful it can be to know what your primary element is, from wood, fire, earth, metal and water.
That’s also how in my clinic I know that someone who presents as a primary earth element, tends to worry too much, collect dampness in the body, often around the waistline, develops anxiety and depression patterns, have sinus issues, environmental allergies, and are more prone to digestive disorders.
How a wood element person is driven by competition, thrive under stress, but is also prone to diseases of stagnation, like chronic pains, anger, and have a harder time slowing down to contemplate or meditate.
So today I will provide you with some aspects of each of the elements to help you identify yourself and your loved ones. This is in no way enough information to diagnose and treat diseases, but a good starting point for entertainment and to incite you to look a little deeper into this revealing way to understand yourself and others.
WOOD:
Physical characteristics: greenish complexion, small head, long face, broad shoulders, straight back, sinewy body, tall, small hands and feet.
Yin organ: Liver
Power: Expansion
Archetype: Pioneer
Desires: Purpose
Context: Challenge
Virtue: Fervor
Path: Action
Values: Utility
Talent: Initiative
Emotion: Anger
Existential issue: Goals: What to do? Strategy: How to do it?
Injuries: head, neck, upper back
Keys to understanding Wood: seeks challenge and pushes to the limit, enjoys and does well under pressure, admires speed, novelty and skill, loves action, movement and adventure, likes to be first, best and only.
Typical problems: impatience, intolerance, volatile emotions, impulsive, abuse of stimulants and sedatives, vascular headaches, muscle spasms, high blood pressure, nerve inflammations, migratory pains.
FIRE:
Physical characteristics: red complexion, wide teeth, pointed, small head, well-developed shoulder muscles, curly hair or not much hair, small hands and feet, walking briskly.
Yin organ: Heart
Power: Fusion
Archetype: Wizard
Desires: Fulfillment
Context: Intimacy
Virtue: Charisma
Path: Compassion
Values: Intuition
Talent: Communication
Emotion: Joy (excessive)
Existential issue: Dimension: How broad is my scope?
Injuries: head, upper back, nose, mouth, throat
Keys to understanding Fire: relishes excitement and delights in intimacy, keenly intuitive and passionately empathetic, believes in the power of charisma and desire, loves sensation, drama, and sentiment, likes to be hot, bright, and vibrant.
Typical problems: anxiety, agitation and frenzy, bizarre perceptions and sensations, nervous exhaustion and insomnia, palpitations, sweating, hypoglycemia, rashes, palsy, abuse of mind-altering substances.
EARTH:
Physical characteristics: yellowish complexion, round face, wide jaws, large head, well-developed shoulders and back, large abdomen, large thighs and calf muscles, well-built muscles.
Yin organ: Spleen
Power: Moderation
Archetype: Peacemaker
Desires: Unification
Context: Connectedness
Virtue: Community
Path: Loyalty
Values: Service
Talent: Harmony
Emotion: Worry
Existential issue: Orientation: What’s my role? Where am I?
Injuries: head, joints, lower back, lower abdomen
Keys to understanding Earth: wants to be involved and needed, likes to be in charge but not in the limelight, agreeable and accommodating, wants to be all things to all people, seeks harmony and togetherness, insists upon loyalty, security, and predictability.
Typical problems: worry, obsession, and self-doubt, meddling and overprotective, overextended and inert, lethargy, indigestion, unruly appetites, water retention, muscle tenderness, unrealistic expectations and disappointment.
METAL:
Physical characteristics: pale complexion, square face, small head, small shoulders and upper back, flat abdomen, strong voice.
Yin organ: Lungs
Power: Contraction
Archetype: Alchemist
Desires: Order
Context: Organization
Virtue: Righteousness
Path: Mastery
Values: Purity
Talent: Discrimination
Emotion: Sadness
Existential issue: Boundaries: What I am and am not.
Injuries: head, skin, mouth, throat, nose
Keys to understanding Metal: likes definition, structure, and discipline, respects virtue, discretion, and authority, seeks to live according to reason and principle, holds self and others to the highest standards, reveres beauty, ceremony, and refinement.
Typical problems: indifference and inhibition, autocratic, strict, and persnickety, formal, distant, and unnatural, stiff joints and muscles, dry skin and hair, shallow breathing, sensitive to climate, poor circulation, self-righteousness and disillusionment.
WATER:
Physical characteristics: dark complexion, wrinkly skin, large head, broad cheeks, narrow shoulders, large abdomen, long spine
Yin organ: Kidneys
Power: Consolidation
Archetype: Philosopher
Desires: Truth
Context: Mystery
Virtue: Honesty
Path: Knowledge
Values: Durability
Talent: Imagination
Emotion: Fear
Existential issue: Origins/Destiny: What is my past, my future?
Injuries: head, upper back, lower back, hips, legs
Keys to understanding Water: articulate, clever, and introspective, self-contained and self-sufficient, penetrating, critical, and scrutinizing, seeks knowledge and understanding, likes to remain hidden, enigmatic, and anonymous.
Typical problems: emotionally inaccessible and undemonstrative, isolation and loneliness, tactless, unforgiving, and suspicious, hardening or the arteries, deterioration of teeth and gums, backache, chilliness, loss of libido.
Just like with Yin and Yang and the dynamic of our constant search for balance, you might find that you identify with many elements, and we are indeed a combination of them all. But the key here is to identify the predominant aspect of you. There’s one element that is the driving force of your self-expression.
Pretty much everything can be associated with the 5 elements, and therefore, one can learn the best foods for their primary element, the best type of movement, the best type mental practices, etc.. I use the elements to treat my patients and coach them in all aspects of life that they need help with.
A lot of these knowledge is also used in guiding my intuition in how to be in my own personal life, in how to interact with people, adapt to different climates, for self-care, etc.. And so much of it becomes common sense, once you learn them and suddenly discover how simple and intuitive life can be.
Isn’t it interesting how we spend most of our early years learning how to silence the internal voice of our intuition? And how we are mostly conditioned to look for answers for our problems outside of our innate wisdom? We learned to forget that we know more about ourselves than anyone else.
We become fractured, disconnected, and lost when we separate the visible and invisible aspects of who we are, and when we treat them independently, we miss out on the depths of our life experiences and challenges, and perhaps even extend times of discomfort and suffering unnecessarily.
So, if you are feeling inclined to take steps towards reconnecting all the aspects of who you are, understand the messages of the disharmonies that are presenting in your reality, develop a new way of accepting and responding to the challenges in your live, and have a more empowered way of living, for the sake of experiencing life with all possible flavors available to you. If you are still with me, if this message inspires you and you are curious about what we could uncover together, go ahead and call or text me now.
