Air is a beautiful element and it is one I can talk about endlessly by nature. It represents the mental and intellectual, and it demonstrates influence in our lives through, information, luck, travel, freedom, and social interaction. When this element is in balance, we will find ourselves excelling at communication, and our brain feels invigorated with thought and exciting contemplation. However it will not stand in the way of our life, in fact only providing such invigoration when it is most needed, without hindering our sleep or mental clarity.
Imbalance in our air is frequent, as Air is the shiftiest of elements. Just as the winds can seem to change directions at the drop of a hat, so too can the balance of this element. When we are imbalanced in our elemental air, we find ourselves nervous, anxious, seeking to control the scenarios around us. We get wrapped up in thought and live in made-up realities inside our own mind. Brain fog clouds the reality in front of us and we can become flighty, spacey and jittery by nature. Physical manifestations of this could make us underweight, frail, or give us trouble breathing, moving or sleeping. To address the issues of imbalance inside our air element, we have to analyze for deficit or excess.
Qualities of Deficient Air Element:
- Shortness of Breath, Stagnation of Thought, Boredom, “Stuck in a rut” feeling. Feeling trapped or stale. Spacey and Sluggish Mentally, Evident Brain Fog.
Qualities of Excessive Air Element:
- Anxiety, Nervousness, Controlling, Feeling overwhelmed, unquietable brain, insomnia, racing thoughts, hyperfixation on ideas and thoughts. Indecisiveness.
Some of these qualities actually present themselves in both deficits and excess, so it is important to find more than one quality when analyzing the full scope of imbalance in our air element. As discussed in Deficits and Excesses we also have to be mindful of what other imbalance is partnered with this imbalance in air, as all imbalances on one side of our elements means that there is another element that is equally displaced in balance.
For example, if our air is in deficit, and we find ourselves stagnant and stuck in a rut, feeling trapped, these all share characteristics with an excess of earth, as earth, being the element of duty and structure will manifest an excess as obsessive routine, or a similar “trapped in our own life” kind of feeling. Likewise if we find ourselves riddled with nervousness and anxiety about our purpose and our soul’s mission. (thinking questions like “why am I here, why do I even live”) we might notice that we have a deficit in fire, creating a lack of purpose that is fanned by the anxious thoughts pushing us to make something of our lives, instead of enjoying the journey.
These are just a couple examples to represent how imbalances in two elements will coincide while we analyze which one needs our attention. Typically in these situations one element is the dominant agitator, or the “cause” of the imbalance, and once it is addressed the other half of the imbalance will gradually bring itself in harmony. This is why it doesn’t benefit us to necessarily address both elements at one time. More work on the agitating element (usually the one in excess) will bring both of them into harmony.
This brings into question what we are supposed to do about the other two elements at any time. If our imbalance can be addressed by analyzing two elements, and focusing on the agitator, what do we do regarding the remaining two elements? The problem, or maybe the answer, is that we do not often only have imbalance in one element. In fact, more commonly one element’s excess can cause all of the others to become deficient. This is another reason to focus on the main dominant agitator, and once it feels to have been balanced, we can reassess the harmony of all four, and move forward.
For that reason it is important to remember that Elementalism is a lifestyle practice. It absolutely cannot be learned, mastered, and applied in the span of a day, week or even a month. It is a day to day assessment of the harmony within ourselves with the world we seek to live in. After discussing the deficits and excesses of all four elements, we will address what things we can do throughout our day-to-day lives to bring balance back to our imbalanced elements.
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