Wood element personality types feel driven, ambitious, and focused. One of the Chinese elements types, wood types thrive with a challenge. Adventure motivates them. Don't know your Five Elements Personality Type? Take the quiz.
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Wood Element Personality 木
Strength and Flexibility
Wood Element Personality types are driven, ambitious, and focused...really focused. If you ask Wood types a question, they will likely keep working while answering. Unlike Water types who feel great fear, Wood types feel excited by a challenge. Wood’s capacity to envision helps create concrete goals and plans.
When in balance, Yin energy keeps Wood types supple and flexible, like a willow. When out of balance, wood could crack and lose a physical or emotional limb when, or even be completely uprooted.
Wood Element Personality Archetype - The Pioneer
Driven by adventure and exploring the unknown, the Pioneer deliberately battles adversity to tame the wilderness. Adaptive, cunning, and fiercely independent, Wood types strike out on their own, striving constantly to move past their limits.
Exploration can be in the physical realm, including traveling unmapped roads, trekking up mountain slopes, or exploring space. It can also be in the personal realm, staring a new business, researching an as yet unrecognized field, or inventing new products.
The Pioneer removes resistance in order to innovate, reform, and revolutionize. Action fulfills this Chinese elements archetype of the Pioneer.
Chinese elements - Wood’s Need for Calm
Wood prefers to follow documented procedures rather than popular trends. Since Wood is soothed by routines and repetition, consistent schedules (mealtimes and bedtimes) help ease Wood’s sense of stress and action.
This opposes Wood’s consistent drive to explore. In order to stay emotionally and physically balanced, Wood types need to embrace Yin, calming, energy. Periods of hard work must be followed by rest.
Hard work should be completed on a schedule to keep Wood flexible and healthy.
Without enough Yin, Wood becomes stubborn and easily snaps at anything from traffic, a ticking clock, a crying child, and starts grumbling and snarling.
If constantly irritated, Wood element personality types may “blow up,” shout expletives, punch a hole in the wall, or commit horrific and sudden acts of violence that injure themselves and others.
When they calm down again, they will feel shocked at what happened, unable to believe they caused such damage.
Therefore, Wood types must enjoy calm, quiet times, preferably on a schedule.
Which Five Elements Personality are You?
Chinese Elements Wood and Power
When Wood types do not challenge themselves, they may feel angry at the circumstances of their life. Wood wants power and without finding power in healthy ways, Wood will seek out unhealthy forms of power, such as bullying friends, family members, pets, or even total strangers.
When Wood is in harmony, joyful and feeling power from creating and exploring, these forms of aggression feel no longer necessary.
Regular exercise, such as swimming, jogging, taiji, qigong, and walking, will help Wood leave struggles behind after the workout.
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Staying in the Present
It is important for Wood element personality types to stay in the present, in order to be in harmony. When they worry about the past or future, they can feel powerless.
This sense of powerlessness can increase agitation.
Deep breathing and other mindfulness exercises, including stretching, can help Wood types connect to the here and now. It is easier to deal with the present, a time they can actually do something about.
Physical Considerations for Wood Element Personality
Nutrition fortifies wood to grow. Poor nutrition can harm Wood. Wood types need to reduce refined carbohydrates and maintain a steady but moderate supply of high-quality plant and animal proteins.
They should also take a vacation from alcohol, drink warm water as the main beverage.
To calm their minds and support digestion, they should eliminate snacking and stop eating 2-3 hours before bedtime.
Wood types need routine, for exercise, sleep, and food. It’s especially important to remember to eat to stop anger.
Predictability soothes Wood element personality types physically and emotionally.
Believing in Yourself
All people have their destiny to manifest, which cannot be forced or predicted. When Wood types pursue other people’s goals, they endanger their happiness and health.
It may take years to shed other people’s agendas, but Wood types need to work hard to identify and pursue their own objectives.
Truly pioneers after all. They can work independently, to cultivate their personal strength and honor their heroic Wood.
References
Beinfield, H. & Korngold, E. (1991). Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine.
Lion, T. (2018). Finding Health: Traditional Chinese Medicine Basics.
