Day 257 of 365 - The Missing Element - Part Two

Further to yesterday's post about looking at our personality and life patterns from the perspective of the four elements, Debra Silverman's approach to learning more about ourselves will be explored a little further.  She is passionate about the human condition and believes that when we learn to be more compassionate and understanding with ourselves, we will take better care, not only of ourselves but others and the planet.  She has a big picture point of view.

For those who like them, yes, there is another questionnaire or self-survey you can do to get an idea of the strengths or weaknesses of your own personality elements.  You can find it online at
DebraSilvermanAstrology.com and it is called the Four Elements Self-Survey.

Silverman has outlined steps to working with each element.  These include:

1.  Explore - Go inside and identify the element's energies and patterns in your life.

2.  Articulate - Put words to your elemental patterns and speak about them with a trusted witness.

3.  Investigate - Acknowledge the strengths and shadow sides.  Identify and get familiar with your elemental lessons.

4.  Transform - Begin a practice to create a new paradigm.

For purposes, of brevity, I'm just going to report on my survey result and the element that could use strengthening.  My results show that I'm strong in the water and earth elements, pretty strong in the air element and pretty low in the fire element.

Fire is all about honesty, bluntness and a passion for truth.  It gives you the courage to stand out without being self-conscious.  It is spontaneous.  It likes attention.  It is very physical.

As you have read about me in other posts, I like to have a plan and be in control.  As a result, I don't often enjoy spontaneity.  Generally, I don't seek to draw attention to myself and am sensitive to the criticism of others, thus avoid being in a position to receive it.

To transform my old story of worrying about having too much fire, here are some of Silverman's tips for me:  Ask for what you need.  Practice asking for and giving feedback.  Listen without defensiveness.  Expand your ability to believe your own opinion and to see another's point of view.  Enjoy the give and take of working with others.  Not everything needs changing! :)  Learn to say 'sorry, I was wrong'.  Know when to stop.

There is much more information in the book, The Missing Element, by Debra Silverman for those who are interested in learning more.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 53 of 365 - Christmas Decorating at Tortoise Pace

This past weekend the Facebook posts with photos of completed Christmas decorating began showing up.  Some people decorate every room of their common areas.  Some have up to three Christmas trees.  I admire those photos.  It's all very lovely and festive.  Those people are the hares in the race to Christmas.  I am the tortoise. I'm not judging.  People have their reasons for wanting to get it all done early.  That way they can enjoy gazing upon their holiday décor for several weeks.  Or, they may be entertaining with holiday parties or family get togethers on whatever date works for them. I love the holiday season, the lights, the decorations, the food, the general sense of magic in the air.  But this year I'm just having a little trouble getting the momentum going for decorating.  Before our first snow, which is now gone thanks to a few days of rain, I got excited and put up the balcony lights and garlands.  We have been e...
Read more

Day 86 of 365 - Year End Gratitude

Today I was out doing some of my usual weekend grocery and household shopping.  I noticed that the selection was more limited and that there were empty spaces and shelves.  Most of the holiday inventory that was added to aisles and end displays is disappearing, now at clearance prices.  Regular inventory shelves have not been fully restocked, probably due to some staff being on a vacation break. This made me realize how much we take for granted that everything we want will just 'be there' when we arrive at stores to shop.  It's part of our instant gratification culture here in North America, but it is certainly not at all typical in many other parts of the world.  We are so fortunate with all the choices we have, but we also just assume they will always be there. I felt grateful for the staff of the stores who are spending their shifts restocking the shelves for us.  I said a friendly hello to the produce manager at the grocery store, a man who goes out...
Read more

Day 13 of 365 - The Joy of Singing - Part 1

When I was growing up we had an old upright piano in our living room.  My mother had learned to play piano and organ as a young girl.  She continued to enjoy it as a past time during her years of homemaking and raising a family.  Often she would play from one of her songbooks and some of the children, usually the girls, would stand nearby singing and looking over her shoulder to read the lyrics. Those were fun times for me and I enjoyed singing melody lines and sometimes trying a harmony.  In elementary school I learned some basic sight reading of music and had some time in the school choir.  But, most of my singing happened at home or at church. I was raised as a Catholic and in my pre-teen and early teen years what were then known as folk choirs and now are better known as contemporary choirs came into vogue.  Our small town choir seemed to have limited access to that spiritual music genre and struggled by with a limited number of hymns/songs.  I...
Read more