The elements within us

We are all born with natural tendencies, these are made up of different combinations of the elements: air, water, Earth and fire. Some call this the personality of the person or the star sign. We all possess all the traits within us but to different extents you can have someone with a lot of earth, fire and water and very little air, or a balance of water and fire, whilst having little of the others.

Your natural tendencies are what you are born with and also what you developed like as a child. The food we eat has ability to balance or imbalance our elements, as well as our experiences and the way we learn to deal with them.  We also learn behaviour as we grow up, by what we see and hear in our home environment, from our parents, and our schools etc.

Below I have put together some of the basic traits that are connected with different elements, I have done my best to keep the traits natural, though English language often attaches judgments to words. I.e. stubborn in not necessarily a bad trait, one can use stubbornness to accomplish great things; it is due to the English language that we have given ‘stubborn’ negative connotations. So I would ask you to please read this list below with an open mind and see power and potential in all elements and all traits to be used for the good or the bad depending on what the person possessing them chooses to do with them.
 

There is no judgment here, because traits are by definition neither good or bad, they are tools. And depending on how we use them we can create more or less light and goodness in the world.

In a nut shell:
 

Earth traits: obsessive, stubborn, organised, methodical, structured, immobile, containment, reliable, disciplined, law abiding, neat, inflexible, grounded, repetitive, responsible, heavy, consistent, stuck, decisive, realistic, emotionless, cold

Air traits: structureless, on the go, free, no rules, flexibility, inability to make decisions, talkative, needs space, knows how to bring all opposites together, movement, communicative, changing, adapting, imaginative, fantastical, unrealistic expectations, potential oriented, emotionally detached, easily influenced, strong imagination, gullible, meaninglessness

Water traits: pleasure seeking, wants things to be easy, fun, laughter, relaxed, emotional, needs touch, without boundaries, beauty, struggles with self-esteem, passionate, fearful, anxious, worried, people pleasing, lack of assertiveness, avoids confrontation, self-destructive, changeable, lack of seriousness, humble, deeply connected in relationship, paranoid, validating, polite, good listener, wise, meaningful.  

Fire: proud, angry, ego driven, competitive, thirst for knowledge, desire to be the best,  ambitious, goal oriented, spiritual, joyful, warm, laughing, lively, animated, excited, passionate, enthusiastic, bright-eyed, present, loving, disciplined, self-aware, controlling, cant delegate, abrupt, to the point, bossy

What makes us uniquely human is the ability that each person has to put aside their natural tendency in the pursuit of a higher moral or spiritual value.

If an animal naturally eats other animals in the wild. I.e a lion, it does not have the ability to think today I will become a vegan because I believe what I have been doing all these years is cruel and that zebra has just as much right to live as I do. Animals only have natural tendencies. As humans we have a spiritual element that gives us the ability to overrule our tendencies for a higher purpose. In the process we transform our selves from animals into truly spiritual beings. 

If you are struggling with a tendency that you feel has become negative and destructive.
You can help yourself to balance it by using its opposite element in nature.
 

i.e. if you struggle with negative fire - Pride, egotistic, Anger (fire), drink some water, take a bath or shower, sit by the sea or a lake, listen to the sound of water rushing, run water over your hands, go out in the rain, look at a picture of water. all of these activities can help to balance the fire element within you.

Or negative earth - Depression, OCD, etc, needs air. In order for something to grow in the soil you must turn the soil, dig it up, this process adds air to the soil and brings it to life. To unstick yourself from negative earth tenancies you can add air by moving, doing exercise, breathing deeply, talking, communicating, mediating on or visualising movement, getting fresh air, going outside.

(Based on chapter 1 Tanya)