Based on ancient traditional Chinese medical theory, tea is originally a medicine, not just a tasty beverage. Different teas relate to different elements, and each has its own medical benefits.
Basically, the Five Elements include: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.
Managing the Five Elements is a big project with many details, but basically, there are five things we must understand in order to make use of Five Elements theory to choose the correct tea to drink for the appropriate health benefits.
No.1 - we need to understand how the five elements relate to our organs and how the five elements affect those organs and which tea should we choose for keep the organs in the healthy balance.
No.2 - we need to understand how the five elements relate to the seasons, and how that could affect our body and which teas should be chosen in different seasons.
No.3 - we’ll discover how the five elements relate to our emotions, different emotions will cause different health problems, choose wrong teas could makes your emotions and health even worse. Conversely, choosing the right tea can make your mood more balanced and your body stronger.
No.4 - we need to understand how the five elements relate to different types of teas, and how we can choose the right teas in different situation.
No.5 - having already described the different methods of handling water in my online course the Ancient Chinese Science & Art of Brewing Tea and the book 5 Element Tea, we can now use this concept to create the water movement that corresponds with the different five elements to brew different types of teas according to the different season to bring us wellness, based on the Five Elements theory.
When summer is coming, we love the summer! It conjures up images of playfulness and freedom! Are you ready to learn how to choose right teas to bring these great feelings into your life? Let's get started:
Today, we introduce one of Five elements for you - Fire.
The Fire element corresponds with summer. Summer is a period of prosperity. In traditional Chinese medical theory, Heaven Qi (Heaven Energy) and Earth Qi(Earth Energy) have converged, and all things are in blossom in summer. People should go to bed late at night and get up early in the morning, avoiding any confrontation with the heat of daytime and anxiety in life, and try to enjoy themselves, enabling Qi to flow smoothly. Such an attitude toward life in summer is the outward manifestation of a cheerful state of mind. This adaptation to the Qi (Energy) of summer is a Taoist principle for the cultivation of health. Violation of this rule may impair the heart and small intestine, resulting in malaria in autumn and severe disease in winter due to insufficient supply of energy to maintain astringency in autumn, which follows summer in the cycle of the seasons.
Very often, when the Fire element has been negatively affected, people feel as if they aren’t in control of their emotions, and they’re subject to overexcitement. When a person overreacts with excitement, this is also an indication that the Fire element is out of balance. Here, I’ll use the word ‘joy’, which can be understood as the equivalent of happiness. When the Fire element is out of balance and there’s excessive joy, this situation could also hurt the body. For example, some people like gambling too much. When they win lots of money, they may be overly happy, leading to heart disease. A Taoist principle for the cultivation of health is that it’s essential to follow the natural course of events without getting overly excited about things you perceive as being “good” occurrences. Keeping emotions in balance is essential for our health.
When the Fire element in our body weakens, we need the support of the Wood element tea to make it stronger. When Fire element organs are in balance, they can also control the proper functioning of the Metal element organs. Water element energy also governs the flow of energy in Fire organs. If the Fire element is out of balance or has excessive energy, it can also weaken the Water element organs, possibly causing diseases of the Fire element organs, Metal element organs, and Water element organs.
The Fire element relates to summer. When summer is coming, we should drink both Wood element teas and Water element teas to keep our Fire element organs in balance.
When our excitement grows to excess, we need to drink Water element teas to weaken Fire element. Water element teas help us calm emotions of overexcitement.
At the same time, you also need to supplement with some Wood element teas to keep the Fire element organs in balance and prevent the Water element from having too much control over Fire.
The Wood element supports the Fire element, so Wood element teas are always good for giving energy to Fire element organs. Green teas and Raw Puer teas are the typical Wood element teas. They have traditionally been used to improve heart disease, lower blood pressure, and clear bad breath. These diseases are all related to the energy of Fire element organs being imbalanced.
In the Five Elements system, Fire is associated with summer. If we violate rules around Fire, we may impair the heart and small intestine. Taking Wood element teas like green tea or raw puer tea to support the Fire element is important for maintaining health in summer.
In the Five Elements system, the Fire element also associated with emotions of excitement and joy. If your fire element organs aren’t in balance, it will not only harm the heart and small intestine, but will also cause us to react to things with excessive excitement. Calm is the best emotion to counter excitement. Keeping our emotions at a calm level is key to being healthy. White tea is always the best choice to help us stay in calm.
For more informations. Please check
• ITA Certified Online Course - Ancient Chinese Science & Art of Brewing Tea
• Tea book 5 Element Tea
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