Fire Seasonal Health Inventory
Every season, we have the opportunity for a complete healing of that season’s Element in ourselves. In summer, we have the opportunity to heal our Fire Element. What would that look like—and how do we begin?
One very helpful way to begin is with a Fire Seasonal Health Inventory. This allows us to assess: How is my Fire element doing, anyway? Where might it be beneficial to bring some healing attention?
Let’s start considering some Fire Seasonal Health Inventory questions:
HEART: PRESENCE
The mandate of the Heart is being present.
How fully present are you, as you move through your day? How does multi-tasking affect your degree and quality of presence? How is your quality of presence affected by interruption?
What kind of presence helps others to become more present? Sometimes even just being given permission can be enough to make a shift: “Hey, let’s just take a moment to focus only on this, just for a few moments – what do you say?” Can you think of other ways to invite presence? Can you do this lightly, without resorting to adrenaline to grab and hold attention?
Notice the degree to which you interrupt others. Notice its effects. Evaluate how and when (and how often) you interrupt. There tend to be very different cultural patterns around how much interruption, and what quality of interruption (including jumping in when others are speaking) is beneficial or not beneficial to a sense of mutual presence and Heart-level connection. With any given person, in any given interaction, if you are inspired to interrupt, what is the best way to do this?
HEART: SPONTANEITY AND CHAOS
What is your relationship to spontaneity? At its best, Fire’s spontaneity is a development of Wood’s freedom, brought into the context of an open-ended awareness of infinite connections. At worst, it is an irresponsible hijack of commitment by a momentary impulse. Are you spontaneous? When and where and how? How do you respond to the spontaneity of others?
Explore the health of your relationship to spontaneity. Can you loosen up while remaining aware and responsible? Can you stick with your heart’s commitments, and also grab fun opportunities when they appear?
What is your relationship to chaos? Essentially, Fire’s relationship to chaos spans a continuum between a sense of no order, no rhythm, and no pattern, to a sense of transcendent order, hidden rhythm, and undetectable but intuited pattern. What seems like mayhem to one person is jazz to another. Where in your life do you experience chaos? Where do others experience chaos as a result of your way of living?
In chaotic situations see if you can relax enough to sense a hidden drumbeat or unifying theme that allows you to connect and engage without feeling scattered or out of control.
HEART: ESCAPISM AND BURNOUT
What is your relationship to entertainment and escapism? Sometimes taking a “vacation” can actually help us expand our consciousness beyond ordinary bounds, and come back to our accustomed lives refreshed.
At other times, TV or movies or video games are a displacement activity, filling an emptiness inside without actually improving our healthy Fire—and in some cases actually diminishing it.
What kind of entertainment and/or escapism actually leaves you better off, i.e. genuinely expanded or warmed, not just temporarily distracted from your deeper Fire needs? And—do you ever need a break from having fun, to find peace and depth again?
SMALL INTESTINE: CLARITY AND CONFUSION
The mandate of the Small Intestine is Perceptual Sorting.
What is your relationship to clarity or confusion?
Are there places in your life where you feel confused, or unclear? How do you usually respond to the feeling of confusion or unclarity in yourself? How do you respond to confusion or unclarity in others?
Are there places in your life where you are TOO clear? The worst thing about having a misunderstanding is that you have no idea that you actually were confused until it’s too late!
SMALL INTESTINE: SILLINESS
Humor is a healthy and joyous result of confusion i.e., the Small Intestine delighting in the nuances and surprises of doing its job. How’s your sense of humor? Even if this is a serious situation, is there—or could there also be—a funny aspect?
Are you able to encourage and welcome the kook, imp, and goof in others—without any threat to a mutual sense of responsibility? Notice when and where humor can be brought into situations such that it is enlivening yet not disruptive. Go out of your way to wonder about, and investigate, other people’s sense of humor rather than imposing your own. What brings out playfulness in this person? What makes that person smile? NOTE: Try this on the phone with sales representatives!
HEART MEDIATOR: CONNECTION AND WARMTH
The mandate of the Heart Mediator is intimate sharing and closeness.
How do you foster intimacy in your life, and create opportunities for close connection and warmth, whether with friends or family members or romantic partners?
Marriage and family life can be the province of the ultimate blossoming and the ultimate work-out for the Heart Mediator. Some of our deepest wounds and deepest joys may both live here. Without a doubt, it is a tender realm where even a little bit of healing goes a long way.
Are you able to express affection, warmth and tenderness to others? Are you able to share the parts of you that need tenderness and warmth? How love-able are you i.e., when others send warmth and love your way, do you let it in fully?
In what ways do you create circumstances with others that will allow greater intimacy and sharing of warmth to develop, e.g., a walk in the woods, a quiet dinner for two, or a poem that you wrote?
Attune to other people’s need for tenderness. What might this other person want to share with you, if only you made it clear to them that you would receive their sharing tenderly?
HEART MEDIATOR: FLOWER AND SUN
Do you have a habit of being seductive, drawing other people’s flower towards your sun (SEE BLOG), away from their own? Or do you have a habit of being seduced, forgetting your own sun, and craving the other person’s warmth to feed your flower?
TRIPLE HEATER: GROUPS
The mandate of the Triple Heater is continuous adaptation and harmonization to our external environment while remaining true to our own deep nature.
How approachable are you? How adept are you at basic “docking maneuvers” for establishing immediate connections between yourselves and those around you? Is your surface persona a direct emanation of who you are at depth, or is it performance? What is your relationship to simple everyday levels of charisma, or letting your light shine visibly?
What is your experience of crowds and gatherings—including small groups? Are you able to “be yourself” as easily as one-on-one? How is it different? Are you able to make yourself at home in the spirit of the group heart?
Did any of these questions spark insight for you? Are there some Fire Officials that seem to need more attention than others? The Fire Re-Ignition Seasonal Health Retreat will be a remedial romp through all the domains of Fire—come have some fun with healing!
To learn more about Fire element healing, join Thea at one of her upcoming Fire events. Fire Re-Ignition is happening on June 25th, 2023, and Whole Heart Acupuncture Fire is happening on July 8-9, 2023.
To join the discussion, find us on my Perennial Medicine discussion listserv (all are welcome)
