Spring is in its full force, Joe and G. It feels like almost summer today. How are you, two? I apologize for not writing to you guys as often as I wish. My life has been hectic, yet I am relatively well. I am getting better in my physical and emotional health. My body gains more strength, and my mind gets a little bit sharper than when I met you two. It certainly takes a good amount of discipline to keep my body, mind, and spirit in check. In my previous letters to you, I talked to you about anger, and sadness/grief characteristics of Wood and Metal Elements, respectively. This time, I want to share how understanding the generating and controlling cycles between Anger (Wood) and Sadness/Grief (Metal) helps normalize and embrace two basic emotions. I see these two generating and controlling cycles as re-generating cycles.
You can find the basics of generating cycles here. As you can see in Figure 1., Wood (Anger) is nourished by Water (Generating cycle). Metal can control Wood by chopping them down (Controlling cycle). It seems that there are slightly various types of Five Element System, but for now, I would like to use Figure 1.
Mutually reinforcing relationship: Grief to Anger & Anger to Grief
When I think about anger, I think of you, Joe. I remember your anger that fires up within a second (Controlling cycle). That’s how I assumed that you have a tremendous amount of grief and sadness that you had to endure so long. The most challenging part would be that you were alone in a deep place of grief and sorrow. Not only that, but most people do also not understand how the depth of grief could contributing to anger. Then, anger pushes people away, and you become alone again. Your fear that fosters your anger hardly gets to be noticed and validated as a valid, generating force in our emotions (Generating cycle). Ultimately, your intensified grief at the least and suppressed grief at the worst could disharmonies the entire system of your Yin and Yang balance.
Antidotes: Faith and Discernment. These mutually reinforcing cycles between grief and anger are how I find our connection points between you and me. Where is your grief coming from, Joe and G? What about anger? Where your anger comes from? When we understand anger and grief deeply, we need to be friend with fear. We can have more faith as a complimentary feeling for anger and discernment for grief. I am thinking about my faith. Where does your faith come from? Do you have faith? I do want to hear about this from you two someday.
Let’s talk about this more next time. Talk to you soon, my friends.
CST
Mending Hearts Academy 