The Five Elements system is ancient and comprises a holistic way of approaching health and wellness that organizes all natural phenomena into five groups. The five groups, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water, each have an association with a season, a direction, climate, organs, emotion, taste, color, and sound among many, many, many other associations. Each element pushes and pulls the natural order of our bodies into states of excess or deficiency. This approach is to ensures that there is balance with no disharmony between the elemental factors. For this week’s blog, we are offer summer wellness tips by association to help you stay in healthy for the fire element season. Several tips and ideas are recycled from previous post for those just now joining our blog. Welcome!

Fire Element Organ

Imperial Fire ~ Heart (yin) and Small Intestine (yang): The fire element governs the heart and small intestine.

Ministerial Fire ~ Pericardium (yin) and San Jiao/Triple Warmer (yang): The fire element also governs the pericardium and triple warmer.

Fire Sensory Organ: The tongue is the sensory organ related to the heart and the tongue’s appearance reflects the condition of the heart and other organs. The tongue is a healthy red color when the fire element is in balance; whereas, the tongue will be pale if there is insufficient blood circulation in the heart. Cracks or lines down the center of the tongue also suggest a heart health issue. Engorged veins under the tongue represent stagnation. The coating reveals the body’s ability to regulate fluid and heat.

The tongue can be divided into zones representing the elements. The tip of the tongue is the fire element zone, which corresponds to the heart-small intestine network. Emotional issues of the heart, such as stress and anxiety, are indicated by a red color and red dots on the tip of the tongue.

TIP 1: Take care of your heart by reducing stress, increasing cardiovascular exercise and syncing with the luminous yellow dwarf star that illuminates our days. Start your morning off with yoga by practicing Sun Salutation. The Sun Salutation originated as a series of prostrations to the sun, honoring Surya as the source of energy and light for the world. Known in Sanskrit as surya namaskar. Traditionally, it is performed at dawn, facing the rising sun. See our previous post for instruction in Sun Salutation. Rise early ~ start your day with  a sunrise.  Take a break during the heat of the day.  Enjoy long evenings and watch a magical sunset and the glorious afterglow!

Incorporate play and exercise by hooping!

Incorporate play and exercise by hooping and dancing in circular movements. Not only is it aerobic for our hearts, it uses muscles otherwise neglected in our everyday workouts and it gives our small intestine and triple warmer a good workout. Our favorite local Birmingham hooping outfit is Hoop for Fitness. Hoop for Fitness brings hoop dance classes to the greater Birmingham area. I met Hoop for Fitness founder, Robbie Lewis, at a bluegrass music festival years ago, where she offered hoop lessons.  She helped me create my own personalized hoop (or four – hehe). We keep hoops around the office for quick breaks on beautiful days. Hoop for Fitness conducts hoop classes for exercise as well as hooping for birthday parties with games, hoop dance moves, and instruction. You can also find them hooping for fitness at St. Vincent’s One Nineteen every Tuesday and Thursday. See their website for class schedules and more information about parties (yes they travel to Tuscaloosa!), school programs, and create-a-hoop workshops. 

Don’t miss our Q&A with Robbie below! 

TIP 2: Treat your small intestines right by opting for green juice or a smoothie brought from home instead of the sugary donuts and cakes often found at work places, social events, and school class rooms. See last week’s post about no-recipe green smoothies. At the AOW, kiwis are just about ripe and almost ready for you to U Pick!  They are the perfect sweet tart for including in green smoothies. For summer travel, pack a travel cooler by bringing fruits and veggies from home and restocking on the road at grocery stores and fresh food/markets.

Kiwis are almost ripe at AOW!

 Fire Element Sound-Laughter releases endorphins into the blood stream bringing with it a rush of good feelings. A deep belly laugh is medicine and we can purposefully include laughter in our lives to promote good health.  Studies show that laughter and humor have a positive effect on anxiety, depression, and sleep so practice the fire element sound by vocalizing a deep~Haaaaw!

Our fur babies bring joy and laughter to life.

TIP 3: Watch a funny movie or cat video, go see a comedic play or stand up performance, tickle your loved ones, spend time with children and pets, which are endless sources of comedic relief. Pet lovers, you know what I’m talking about, right? Laughter is heart healthy! A recent study by Turkish medical professionals suggests that watching comedy movies has a positive effect on postoperative pain and anxiety in surgical oncology patients.

Know any good jokes?

Fire Element Emotion-Joy: In balance, the fire element manifests as joy, happiness, and love; while out of balance, it manifests as hatred, coldness and depression. Excessive fire element may display as over-excitement. Living a joyful, honest, life and expressing your emotions will keep your heart full and your body healthy.

Research shows that daily experiences of awe, curiosity, gratitude, joy, and love can put the average person on a trajectory of growth, success, and positive social connection, and can also prevent those who are suffering from following a downward spiral.

TIP 4: Go play! Get out there and enjoy life. Spend time outdoors. Do whatever suits your fancy and brings you joy. It may be spending time with family, hiking, camping, road tripping, gardening, singing, playing music, listening to music, dancing, cooking, swimming, skiing, picnicking, sailing, flying a kite, flying a plane, scuba diving, volunteering, reading to children…..get the picture? An active and playful lifestyle season brings joy. So go get to it!

Enjoy life! Dance like your heart depends on it.

Fire Element Color-Red: The color red nourishes the heart. A face turns a healthy reddish glow when the heart is exuberant and joyful, or a person with a heart imbalance may have a reddish/ruddy complexion.

TIP 5: In Chinese dietetics, we suggest that you eat a heart healthy diet of red foods such as tomatoes (not recommended for some people with intolerance to the nightshade family), cherries, beets, radishes, strawberries (not for those with histamine concerns), red beans, red lentils, red spices, and locally grown, grass fed beef (in condiment proportions).

Fire Element Flavor-Bitter: Bitter is the flavor of the fire element and goes directly to the heart. It is even used colloquially by saying someone is “bitter”, which is a fire element imbalance. Bitter flavors stimulate digestion and increase appetite and a cascade of digestive enzymes. Bitter teas, herbs, and tinctures aid in the digestive process by creating movement in a slow and sluggish digestion system. Studies also show bitter flavor helps in treating diabetes. 

Bitter foods and beverages to include in your diet this fire season: Bitter melon, citrus peel, green tea, hibiscus, lavender, turmeric, white pepper, bitter greens and lettuces.

TWO WORDS: EDIBLE FLOWERS!

Squash blooms

Fire expresses itself as life in full bloom. Blooming flowers surround us this time of year and they are a visual, aromatic, and culinary  expression of summer fire, joy, and growth. Edible flowers such as marigold, nasturtium, chamomile, rose, hibiscus and many other edible flowers have a bit of the bitter flavor to them. Other edible flowers to try at your summer table include squash blooms and the flowers from our favorite herbs such as calendula, mint, lavender, rosemary, and basil.

Sprinkle flower petals on a salad, add them to cocktails and mocktails, freeze them in ice cubes, embellish cakes with their beautiful blooms. I’m a Aries and adore decorating my birthday cake with spring flowers every year!! Keep flowers all year long by preserving them in vinegars, dressings and wines or liquors. Edible flowers add a touch of fabulous-ness to your summer parties and picnics! A bouquet of edible flowers is available in the South in every season! Roses are in bloom around this time or you may enjoy an encore bloom later in the summer. Roses are cherished for their strong floral scent and enchanting unfurling. Although their flavor is subtle and fruity, rose is considered a bitter flavor resonating the fire element. Roses complement most everything from salads to teas, water, deserts, spritzes for the body and ritual bathing. Of course, be sure any flower blooms used for food are grown chemical free.

Rose petals sprinkled on a carrot cake make a beautiful display.

To learn more about which seasonal blooms to cultivate around your home, check out University of Texas, Austin Lady Bird Johnson’s Wildflower Center.  You can filter by bloom color/time, state, sun/shade, moisture, height, etc  Warning:  this site is bliss.

Impress your guests by serving edible flowers frozen in ice cubes.

Q&A with Hoop for Fitness Founder and Hoop Dance Instructor Robbie Lewis. 

Hoop for Fitness Founder and Hoop Dance Instructor, Robbie Lewis.

Q: When and why did you start hooping?

A: I started hooping in 2000. I went to a musical festival in Atlanta where I saw a girl with a huge hoop, and I was just mesmerized. I thought I have to have one! So I tried to find one online with no success, but I found a site that gave instructions on how to make hoops. It was not until 2007 that I saw somebody hooping at the Acoustic Café music festival, and she taught me how to move the hoop from my waist to over my head. At that point, I started hoop dancing and began to make hoops.

Q: How did it come about that you are offering classes at St. Vincent’s One-Nineteen?

A:  I began offering hoop classes at St. Vincent’s One Nineteen in 2008. I work in the wellness department for St. Vincent’s Health System as a registered dietitian, and my supervisor suggested that I start a hoop dance class for exercise at St. Vincent’s One-Nineteen. In class, we laugh a lot and have fun learning different dance moves with our hoops. Hoop dance becomes a means of self-expression with the hoop being your dance partner.

Q: I know that you raised your girls hooping. What advice or wisdom can you offer about including hooping for young girls as self-expression during the sexual development stages of life?

A:  I love to teach hooping for young girls! By the age of about 7, girls are developmentally able to push the hoop on their waist and are able to learn hoop dance. Hooping is a wonderful way to boost self-esteem for developing girls, as they are able to be successful at body movement and incorporate music into exercise. It opens their minds to a non-traditional form of exercise that is fun and has the “cool factor.” To be successful at hooping, it is important for a young person to have the right hoop. A 50 lb. girl will need a different hoop than a 80 lb. girl. The same is true for adults.

Q: How far will you travel for parties and hoop making workshops?

A:  Hoop for Fitness offers birthday parties and school programs for hoop dance instruction and Create-A-Hoop workshops. Although we are based out of Birmingham, we will travel to Tuscaloosa! A typical party includes about 20 minutes of a hoop-making craft so that each girl (or boy!) can make their own hoops followed by hoop dance instruction for the remaining hour. It’s lots of fun and allows kids to exercise and enjoy dance movement collectively.

FYI: hula hoop is trademark speak so we call it hooping or hoop dancing!

Check out this video of Robbie hooping fire dance hooping! You too can catch a Community Fire Jam at Avondale Brewery in Birmingham Oct 21, Nov 21 and Dec 19.  Follow this FB link for more information!