Insomnia, Nighttime anxiety attacks, and the Fire Element
Sometimes I wake up hours before morning light with a fire in my head. Swirling thoughts creating a cloud of stimulation are picked up by my endocrine system, and many alerts are sent through my body. The chemicals may be released in bursts, like those fun little mushrooms that you can squeeze to produce a poof cloud of spores.
I’ve spent many hours and even some full nights captivated, a prisoner to my mind’s power. On a recent night though, something awesome happened and I want to share it.
I woke up at 3am with the familiar feeling that the lights, several fans, and a radio had all been switched on in my head. I felt my body react to certain thoughts that were produced out of this chaos, picking them up and transmuting them into chemical messengers. I’ve described this feeling as “melting”, and “waves of liquifying energy running through my major organs”.
My body felt startled and began producing adrenaline and other stress chemicals. Suddenly, I became aware that the element of fire was very present within me. A fire was burning in my head, which is an area dominated by thoughts and the AIR element. Everyone knows the result when fire and air are brought together. Intuitively I knew I should move the fire out of my head, and was surprised to find it was easy to do this.
It can feel like these downloads or sudden realizations fall from the sky (or, seem to appear out of nowhere). But really it has to do with grace, and a lot of making yourself available to it.
Using my imagination, I lowered the burning fire down into my gut, where the heat was welcomed and contained. The fire happily warmed the hearth of my lower belly, eating up the dense, organic, earthy material there. Relief was immediate, and I started to feel sleepy.
I had to move the fire down several more times before falling back to sleep, but this new technique worked 100%. As I would start falling asleep and lose concentration, the fire would rise to its habitual position in my head. Shortly though, I’d managed to dampen it by burning whatever was hanging out in my gut. I fell back into blissful sleep.
Become aware of the interplay of Elements within you
My awareness allows me to witness the interplay of elements within my physical and energetic system. The five elements are earth, air, fire, water, and ether/space. Learning to work with them artfully, masterfully, is something I feel positively curious about. There is a greater purpose to my sharing this information than just telling the story. I’m tapping into a wisdom that ancient cultures have known for a very long time, and could be useful for you, too.
Simply reading this story may open a new awareness to the elements within you. Words are codes, and they carry the information present during their composition. It’s interesting to notice how you feel after reading others’ words. It’s interesting to explore what can be awakened within you simply by reading a collection of words.
Use Fire for Transformation
It is possible to conjure metaphysical elements and use them for your benefit. During the last purnima (full moon) of the year, international leader and mystic Sadhguru led myself and many others through an intense breath work meditation. We used a fast in-and-out of the mouth breath to create a white hot fire inside our bodies, intending to burn away anything that has kept us from full expression of our life force. Fear, doubt, worry, worthlessness- any and all negativity were targeted. I could feel the intense heat in my body, and had to stop several times to cool down.
After the ceremony, the congestion in my body which had been causing pain and headaches all day was gone. The fire had dried it right out. Very liberating.
Importance of Elemental Balance
As you become aware of the elements present within you, and learn how to use them to attain specific outcomes, balancing them will become important too. The fire-breath exercise was done while visualizing that we were sitting beneath the ocean, with 100 feet of water above. Why? because fire is hot. Even metaphysical fire. You know the saying, if you play with fire you’re gonna get burned! But when in balance and used appropriately, fire can be the right tool for the job.
Try it Now
You can do this yourself. Breathe full breaths in and out of your mouth, all the way down to your toes, for 2-3 minutes with your eyes closed. As your cells light up with oxygen, imagine a fire burning within and all around you, growing bright white hot. Feel any heaviness, unhealthy connections, negativity, stagnation, doubt, or fear being burned up and released. Take a cool shower afterward if you can. This will feel great and help a lot with the clearing process.
Fire and Emotion- Anger
We can use elemental metaphors to master emotions , too. Anger is a fiery emotion, along with passion. We might label one as good, the other as negative - but they are neither. They are each the element of fire, expressed as emotion. How you use it is everything.
A lot of emotions are related to the fire element. When going in to manage a group of people or to have a conversation with your significant other, you may ask some questions to “take the temperature” of the person or situation. The fire element relates to temperature, whether hot or cold.
Here are some insights to anger that I channeled while journaling for a class on healing trauma:
🌬🔥 Anger sometimes lashes out. It leaps forward to encounter the perceived foe. Anger is a warrior, a wounded warrior.
🌬🔥 Anger can arise in response to helplessness, inequality, or injustice. Anger is telling me something is WRONG. Anger arises to create a space between me and something I feel helpless about.
🌬🔥 When undirected, anger can act as a bomb, ripping through my own body, hopefully without projectiles being lodged into others. I fear the destructive power.
🌬🔥 I can manage anger through the power of love, compassion, and prayer. I can move anger to parts of my body that can sustain hearth fires. Long, slow burns allow me to direct the heat towards the ice of trauma, melting it if I am careful.
🌬🔥 I trust that my body is capable of managing any emotion that arises within it. As long as I don't hold on, creating contortions in my body with which to trap the emotions, I will thrive.
🌬🔥 Anger and sadness are sisters. They are two sides of the same coin. They are twin horses. Anger with nothing to act upon will turn to sadness. Sadness that is provoked will become anger.
How can I control anger? Is anger safe to have around others? What should I do with it?
🌎💧 Walk away, use it to speak truth, let it flow out of you with tears. Find a way to express it without targeting another. Anger is fire, burn what no longer serves you.
I hope you enjoyed this piece on fire, how the fire element can show up in your life and how you can use it for your benefit.