By Mary Lello
I recently took a workshop that discussed an ancient Celtic belief and how personality traits align with one of the four seasons. This was a fun workshop and seemed to hold quite a bit of truth as all involved grouped off into their “season.”
Try this for yourself, as you look over the traits find the one that is definitely not you and then try to narrow it down to which one is most like you. We all seem to have a dominate season but easily exist in a second season as well. Or you may find the different traits will play out according to what is required of us at work versus at home.
Fall: Clear values, proud to serve, organized, punctual, dependable, caring, prepared, loyal, sensible.
Winter: Abstract, values intelligence/insight/fairness, logical, analytical, cool, perfectionistic, problem solver, visionary, nonconformist.
Spring: Authentic, sensitive, empathetic, romantic, imaginative, warm, enthusiastic, spiritual, compassionate, flexible, sincere.
Summer: Spontaneous, bold, craves excitement/adventure, witty, generous, trouble shooter, impulsive, optimistic, restless, generous, needs fun.
What was interesting to me about this workshop-it was not related specifically to acupuncture-was how this ancient Celtic understanding corresponded so closely to the ancient Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) beliefs and the categorizing of personality according to the five elements.
TCM’s five elements are: metal, earth, fire, wood and water. Each element has a season that corresponds to it; summer is fire, fall is metal, winter is water, wood is spring and earth is late summer, the season we are now entering.
Each person’s physical and mental constitution can be described as a balance of the elements in which one or more may naturally dominate. The proportion of the elements in a person determines his or her temperament. Oriental medicine considers the ideal condition as one in which all the five elements are in balance or in harmony.
The five elements have a paired emotion that fits a pattern; summer is joy and late summer is sympathy. Thus, an imbalance in your element might have you feeling joyless with no sense of humor or wit, and that trait of an adventurous spirit of the summer has melted in the heat.
Another example is the wood element. Its emotion is anger and its season is spring. So if the clear thinking, organized spring type is challenged you might feel more “road rage” than compassion. A typical symptom of this element being out of whack.
There are times when we all need a little “attitude adjustment.” It’s nice to know this can be done naturally and without prescription drugs. There are no side effects to acupuncture and it can, indeed, help to balance your five elements and allow you to be the best of your personality traits!
Mary Lello holds a master’s degree in acupuncture and brings 16 years of experience in acupuncture to her office at 193 Front Street in Farmington. She can be reached at marylello@yahoo.com or by calling 207-778-9700.
