The more deeply I connect with nature, the stronger my sense of how powerfully it can work to heal me — and each one of us. Ancient Taoists, living in tune with the seasons, intuitively understood this. Their wisdom is encapsulated in the Five Elements.

Feeling anxious? Focus not just on the kidneys and kidney-breathing, but on imagining the fresh waters of the land, above and from within, replenishing, revitalising me — the Water element. It’s that simple. If we don’t have a stream, river, well or spring near us, or lake or pond, we can envisage being next to whichever we’re drawn to. Which one am I drawn to? That’s what I need the most. The stillness of a lake because I feel like I’ve been running on empty? Or have I become dehydrated and drained, and need replenishing with a stream or even a small river? Or do I need to help my emotions flow, and find myself aching for the sea? This healing is more immediate, more powerful than most of the medicines I’ve ever been prescribed.

Feeling flat, low, sad. I need the Fire element to recharge me, to lift my spirits, to open my heart again. The sun is the original source of fire, heat, warmth, light, so I sit and bathe in it, and thank it for its heart-warming qualities, the way it makes me feel better in myself, helps me relax and just be present. If there’s no sun (we’re heading into winter as I write this), then light a fire, if you have one. I can sit and get lost gazing into the flames, feeling its warmth, listening to the reassuring crackle. If you don’t have a fireplace, you can light some candles, and gaze into their flames, watch them flicker. Big fire, small fire, it’s still fire and it still feeds the Heart energy.   

Or if I’m feeling like I have nothing left to give, am too tired to look after myself, let alone anyone around me, when I have lost my appetite for life and feel unsupported, un-nourished, it’s the Earth element, the Stomach and Spleen, that are in need of replenishing. Time to go barefoot on the earth, or if it’s too cold or wet, touch the earth or plants… as long as I’m grounded in some way, without the electrical barrier of plastic, other synthetics or rubber, I will create a circuit with the ground, Earth’s magnetic field. And I can ask Gaia to help ground me, anchor me back into my body, rebalance me so my appetite and appetite for life can return.   

When I’m feeling irritated or frustrated, or downright angry, trees and woodland have a calming effect — the Wood element. They can directly help relax my liver and gall bladder and help me let go of my sense of injustice, or needing to be right, or feeling blocked. Trees are so accepting! Their very presence soothes and helps me release tension. I stand or sit with my back to a favourite beech tree and breathe with it, letting it help me self-regulate again. It is a portal for me re-accessing kindness, acceptance, forgiveness and surrender to what is, rather than stay in resistance.

And if I’m feeling overwhelmed with grief, loss or regret — the Metal element, climbing a hill and looking out at the view help me regain a greater perspective on the situation. Or I can lie on my back and gaze up at the sky and clouds, or the moon and stars at night, and they all help me regain a sense of the cycle of life, and how the universe really works, being so much bigger than my closed-in sense of loss and contraction. The sky, the view, expand my lungs again and help me let go of the negative. Awe and gratitude replace the grief, and I can then picture what I’ve lost without the same sense of overwhelm, but with a soft gratitude for all that I do have and all that I did have and experience.

This is the merry dance of life: it’s all just experience. Ultimately there’s no “good and bad”. It all just is. The clouds pass over, as do my thoughts in this meditative, contemplative state. I breathe deeply. I am alive!

With love

Saffron

17th November 2025