

When the Earth element is out of balance, people tend to feel fatigue, insecurity, weakness, fear, possessive, greedy, materialistic, lack of energy, or loss of appetite. It manifests in the body in the solid structures of our bones, muscles, nails, hair, and teeth. This aspect of nature governs groundedness, stability, strength, permanence, patience, fertility, and security. This foundational element is represented by a yellow square and it corresponds to muladhara chakra, the root or 1st chakra. The journey to consciousness begins at Prithivi, the Earth element. Eventually, you can work on experiencing the qualities of each in every asana you practice. Once you have mastered connecting with the first element, you can proceed to the next one. Try to feel the sensation of the element as much as possible throughout your practice. Instead, think about their energy and vibration, or how the essence of these elements affects your body, mind and emotions as you move and breathe on your yoga mat. When incorporating the five elements in your yoga practice, try not to focus too much on their materiality. This means that we feel calm, peaceful, happy, healthy, and strong. Yoga teaches us that when all five are balanced within ourselves, then we have achieved perfect wellness. The benefits we get from practicing yoga with an emphasis on experiencing the elements of nature are numerous.

By understanding and incorporating the awareness of each element into your yoga practice, you will find that it is easier to balance and harmonize your individual dosha to create health, well-being and happiness. The techniques and practices of yoga can be very effective at harmonizing and balancing the five Ayurvedic elements. The three Ayurvedic doshas are combinations of two basic elements. However, all five elements are equally important and interrelated. Earth, Water and Fire are therefore easier for us to understand than Space and Air because they have more concrete forms. Space and Air are intangible yet they exist everywhere around us, even though we cannot see it. Akasha (Space or Ether) - represents emptiness, consciousness, and intuition.Įarth, Water and Fire are tangible things that can be touched or seen they exist as matter.Vayu (Air) - represents movement, expansion and communication.Tejas or Agni (Fire) - represents energy, passion and transformation.Apas or Jal (Water) - represents fluidity, adaptability and change.Prithvi or Bhumi (Earth) - represents solidity, stability and grounding.Thanks!Įach element has its own characteristics and properties:

They form the basic building blocks of the universe, every person, animal, plant and thing is composed of various combinations of the pancha bhutas. The 5 elements of nature are known in Sanskrit as the pancha bhutas, or panchamahabhutas. The awareness and understanding of these laws of nature allows us to bring them into a state of equilibrium through our yoga and meditation practices. When they are out of balance, we can experience suffering and unhappiness. When they are in harmony, we experience peace and good health. The ebb and flow of these five elements influence our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. They represent the physical and energetic qualities of the human body and of the physical world.

These five basic elements are earth, water, fire, air and space or ether. From traditional Chinese medicine to Feng Shui, almost every ancient culture described the nature of natural phenomena composed of several basic elements. In yoga, Ayurveda and Indian philosophy, the five elements are known as pancha bhootas.
