When we think of the day, any day, we tend to think of it in time segments. Usually, this means we think of the day in hours, minutes, and seconds. However, there’s more to it than that. The day can also be thought of and divided into other types of segments that, with the help of ancient knowledge/wisdom, can make the day your friend, with less stress, and time enough to do what you need to do. It does require a bit of a mind shift in thinking and that’s what I’m here to help with so you can come away with lots of ideas for structuring your day in a way that works best for you.
If we look at time within the viewpoint of the 5 Elements (Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood), we can see that they each have a certain time of day when they’re at their strongest, and we can use this to our advantage so our day flows as it should instead of running in bumps and stop-starts.
We’re going to look at this day in 3 parts, so we can focus enough attention on each Element.
Metal Element-starting of the day
Take a look at the chart between 5-7 am. This is the time when many of us wake up and start to get ready for work. The best way to start your day is to have a full glass of water right away (okay, maybe after you use the bathroom!) Your body has been working all night long while you’ve slept-processing your previous day, including your thoughts and what you ate. So it gets dehydrated because it’s used up a lot of energy and fluids overnight. Treating your body to a glass of water is rejuvenating as it’s replenishing some of the fluids it’s used up. After you’ve had your water, feel free to enjoy your cup of java. Go for a quick walk or do some stretching to get those muscles moving again and get some good deep breathing started. Why is all of this important? Because the Metal Element is made up of the Lungs (breathing in life!) and the Large Intestine (let’s let go of the waste and thoughts we don’t need!).
Between 7-11, am is our Earth Element time. The organs we, as practitioners, look at are the Stomach and Spleen. Our work day is getting going and your stomach will thank you for a healthy breakfast and for packing a healthy lunch, too! Our body needs good nourishment to really get it going and the stomach will be one of the first to break down that nourishment into parts that the body can handle. We’re breaking down our day into the projects that need to get done and we need the energy and good thinking that are very much associated with this element. When the energy here is unbalanced, we can get all ‘up in our heads’ with worry and overthinking, which doesn’t do any good to you or those you are working with! This time is the bulk of our planning and scheduling time-what’s important to our day and how are we going to get it done-time.
During each of these hours, give your body a break and get up if you’ve been sitting in front of a computer! We need physical movement (which your Spleen relies on for optimum performance) and we don’t give ourselves permission to nourish the body with the movement it needs so energy gets distributed throughout it!
That’s Part 1! See you next time for the middle of the workday!