Fire, Air, Water and Earth Keep Us Grounded
Many decades ago, I was still young but old enough to notice that appliances, cars, shoes, electronic items and many other goods seemed less durable than during my grandparents’ era. Growing up surrounded by people wearing mended clothes, like patches on the elbows of men’s coats (which inspired me to do the same, very satisfying task: my own kids had amini cars, sailboats, or hearts on the knees of their pants), I was shocked to be told, “It will cost less for you to buy a whole new coffee machine” when all I needed was to replace a broken Silex pot because the coffee maker was still perfectly fine. It seemed like there was an alarmingly (at least for me, the reusing-recycling geek) exponential increase in the turnover of disposable objects, probably mirroring an exponential decrease in their quality.
Indeed, even more shocking is the fact that many objects are apparently designed not only to not last, but not be repaired. The illuminating book A Life Less Throwaway confirmed my suspicions: it’s all because the reductionistic and highly damaging goal of our greedy society is to make a profit. And when people repair, reuse or keep their things, they don’t buy. What a flawed, dangerous logic.
How do we resist that? If you care about the planet like I do, you will pause every time you have an urge to buy or consume something, or any fleeting thought of upgrading what’s perfectly fine. We have become enslaved to advertisements that decide for us when we are due to replace our phone, or car, or bike, or sunglasses. We are brainwashed into believing that we need a complete kitchen makeover to be happy and serene. We are so vulnerable to such propaganda because of our deep insecurities and our overreliance on external cues or validation instead of listening to our basic good-enoughness.
I, for one, refuse to have my freedom taken away like that. I am the proud wearer of clothes I had in high school. I rescued our old Ikea Ektorp couch we got before my oldest son was born, I still enjoy furniture items (that I mailed to myself from Canada upon migrating here) and kitchen items from my grandparents, and a mug from my childhood. When I go skiing, I proudly use the same jacket I wore 35 years ago. As much as I love books, I try to buy them used, or even better, I borrow them from the library. Even though I profusely complain about the low mileage range and depressing color of my car that is almost five years old, I will probably let it die on me before I shop for another one. (I am truly inspired by my friend Julie, who has been using her car for the past two decades!)
Another way to realize how enslaved we have become to materialism is to conduct a very easy experiment: leave your phone behind, pack a healthy lunch (meaning dried fruit, nuts, crudités, whole grains, water), go in nature and pay attention to how you feel at the end of the day. You will be amazed how fulfilling it is. On various camping experiences and during all the times I have been invited to go to someone’s cabin, it had a magical effect on me: no TV, no Wi-Fi, just a lake, s’mores on the fire, bird songs, board games in good company and the fragrant forest. It is all so wholesome.
I had a great aunt whom I despised as a babysitter because she would not play with me but instead watch TV, listen to the radio, read her paper or knit, and her laziness made her serve Jell-o dessert in the same plate that I had used for the ground beef, corn and potato dish! But when she took my sister and me to her chalet once for a few days I remember having such a great time there. A “cabane à sucre” (sugar shack), where maple water is transformed into various maple products to be enjoyed with beans, eggs, lard, etc., and where hot maple syrup is poured on snow to create a true Canadian treat (“la tire d’érable”), also had a similar effect when I was a kid.
Every single time, I had a wonderful experience. I felt recharged. I felt light. Why is that? While camping or staying at a cabin, we undergo a detox from materialism, which allows us to fully connect with the four core elements: earth, wind, fire, water. These are what the planet (and the joys of the cabane à sucre experience!), and us, are made of; the wind through our breath, the fire in our energy and heat, the minerals of the earth in our bones, and the water for the rest (in our cells, our tears and all the other life fluids). If we’re in nature, do we really need a watch that counts steps? I find that very annoying, therefore I still have this good old clock on a wristband. I want a watch to tell time, not a watch to be watched by!
An avid reader and world-explorer, I enthusiastically incorporate approaches like hygge, shinrin-yoku or sisu. What these practices with a foreign name have in common is that they invite us to connect with one or more of the four elements of nature: water (swimming, snowshoeing, cold plunges, warm bath, drinking tea), air (deep breathing, singing, humming), earth (walking, hiking, gardening, tree-hugging or forest-bathing), and fire (singing by the fireplace, human connections, massage, baking, lighting up a candle, petting an animal). The connection with nature’s elements happens through our various sensory modalities, and by pausing to make this happen, we are cultivating a mindful way of life, which can help regulate blood pressure, stressful emotions, sleep and a plethora of other aspects of our health. It also promotes our awareness of making sustainable choices, reducing consumerism and putting mindful shopping ahead of materialism!
To feel in balance, we need to see how the elements look like in our body and how they are expressed in our life: our direct environment and activities. For instance, someone with high fire can be passionate, which is a good thing, but if it is in disequilibrium, like a condition with chronic inflammation or consuming anger, adding the water element by swimming or doing a cold plunge can restore that balance. Someone with too much “air” element (being lost in worries and anxieties) should try to be more grounded by doing some gardening or taking frequent walks. The movement will bring vitality.
Lifestyle hygiene is a core element of my philosophy of holistic care. Before going to medical school, I studied physical therapy where we were using elements like ice (water) or heat (fire) to help the body heal. This foundational knowledge has always pervaded my attempts to catalyze mind-body integration and reduce chronic inflammation in survivors of trauma. For several years, I have been developing a whole-person, bio-psycho-socio-spiritual treatment plan for patients I have been working with to address all the dimensions of their wellbeing: counseling about balanced nutrition, abstinence from mind-altering substances, psychotherapy, sleep hygiene, behavioral activation, periodic digital detox, exercise, socialization and boundary-setting, artistic self-expression, narrative approaches with reading recommendations, connection to nature and other spiritual values such as gratitude, interconnectedness, and compassion, to name a few.
Feng-shui is the design equivalent of creating a balance between the four elements. I have a lot of fun making the best out of my home to create balance. I love turning some rooms into a giant coloring book and as such, I proudly accomplished a $6 makeover in my small bathroom simply by harmonizing the colors that were too beige and gray, replacing the latter with a beautiful, wilderness green (which is the appropriate color for a water room, nicely balanced by the caffe latte of the walls that look better with the green cabinet than the initial gray).
Certain activities can symbolize elements: traveling is grounding as I explore new places and become more mindful, more anchored in the moment. Laughing and humming help me bring air into the mix. My creativity is fluid like water. Loving is my source of inner fire. And for me writing, the continuous thread of my life, my major coping and transformative tool, integrates all of the above: it is like my oxygen, my grounding, my fluid expression and an outlet to my inner fire.
And as an interesting synchronicity, hours after I wrapped up this essay my middle son went through his testing for his green belt ceremony in Tae Kwon Do, and their instructor quizzed the class on the meaning of the lines on the Korean flag around the yin and yang symbol: the four elements, in all their glory!
So, let’s boycott anti-sustainability and avoid like the plague all dishonest and profit-avid companies trying to sell us low-quality, polluting or mind-numbing products, when all we really need is already around us and in us!
Email Caroline Giroux, MD
Fire
Anger/Passion
Warms up but can burn
Red
Air
Fear/Love
According to Frédéric Lenoir, a joy philosopher,one fundamental task as human beings is moving from fear to love*
Blue
Earth
Depression/Vitality
Grounding, yet staying too stuck to the earth paralyzes.
Yellow
Water
Sadness/Joy
Fluid. Allows floating, surfing (accepting) and exploring(scuba-diving in life) or drowning in sorrow
Green
