The Five Elements: Understand Yourself and Enhance Your Relationships with the Wisdom of the World's Oldest Personality Type System

Dear friend as you mentioned five elements originated in Chinese medicine in 2000 years back here I want to correct you that this five element theory dates back to moore then 5000 years in Indian scriptures of Vedas & vastu shastra

Nothing incredible about it. If the subject is relatively new for a reader then may be as a beginner this book will enchant the immaturity in you and might make you go gaga about ‘oh yeah I’m this’ or moments of ‘yeah this is my personality ‘ . Think about Linda Goodman’s sun signs and how it delighted you during the school days. After a few days , the heat subsided. The author confesses herself to has a dominant water and wood element (I guess) and doesn’t hesitate to be elaborative, all praises , kind and full of excuses about the personality flaws and all they good things. The real fun is to read about how she talks about other elements in the circle. She does get judgemental but attempts to make it appear like a thoughtful attempt at observation. The content is mostly borrowed (or seems to have been researched) from various sources. Dondi Dahlin refuses to recognize the aspect of ‘self-evolution’ and even though she lectures liberally on love, acceptance, kindness and compassion , she liberally criticizes a certain aspect of India citing one of her visits as a ‘belly dancer’ . She completely forgets her manners about exuberant and luxurious Indian hospitality she received however generously gives graphics of poverty, beggary, remarks on garbage disposal that she witnessed in a manner of loathsome remorse. At one point she even mentioned about an abandoned dead body on one side of the road. To my shock, based on everything what I read in her book, creates such a stark contrast of opinion about the author and makes her appear as a hypocrite and utterly inflexible personality who refuses to accept ‘that side’ of India’! You feel compelled to question the inevitable- where is her love, acceptance and compassion that she lectures liberally on ? EVERYONE HAS A PLACE IN INDIA. If you cannot accept and evolve with that, then I feel you are not qualified to be penning down a book such as this that talks about universal principles . Or how about getting your hands dirty to offer and make a difference to the world like Angelina Jolie by taking some action and talking less about how poverty, handicap and hunger resides in countries she travelled to vs her criticism and anguish! Sorry, I do mind the trail of negative vibrations this woman left behind. Abundant information on five elements, TCM is available on Pinterest if you look up and is in fact quite illuminating. In case this review comes across as personal then that was definitely my intention...towards the author.

Love this book

un buen resumen para detectar los cinco elementos en las personalidades, un buen camino para la introspección. La parte final en la que te ayuda a detectar a los elementos en los niños es muy interesante

If you think you have understood the 5 elements before, this book brings a very interesting and in depth look at the characters and personalities of the 5 elements and how people are naturally likely to behave within the concept of the primary element they were born with. There is so much information in this book, and its beautifully written.

For years I've been struggling with the notion that I am supposed to be, in the ancient Chinese “five element” system, an Earth element (or rhythm) person. This was indicated by a quick muscle test method that should have worked. I hated the idea. I kicked and screamed over it. How could I be?? But by others I was convinced. Still, I don't have children and never wanted them: I'm not the "earth mother" type that's sometimes described for Earth element people, but I do like to encourage people to become their best selves through my books and healing practices. Is that nurturing? And I have suffered from uterine fibroids, a typical Earth rhythm ailment, making me (when younger, before they shrank a bit) look like a Mother Goddess statue from antiquity, as one young man pointed out. So I've been living under this idea ever since, reluctantly. Well, this book has liberated me!! I am ecstatic! The thorough descriptions helped, but more importantly, the comprehensive self-tests, questionnaires, and checklists nailed it. I took the tests, read the descriptions, and was able to definitively declare that my rhythm--my true, happy, quirky self--moves first and primarily in the flow of Water, and shockingly next with the stomping confidence of WOOD! (secondary rhythm), followed by the enthusiastic combustion of Fire (tertiary or third rhythm), with only the occasional drift into the deep compassion of Earth nurturing (fourth). I'm still reading and absorbing the wonderful stories from the author's colorful life as belly dancer, actress, mother, and daughter of a world-famous healer (Donna Eden). And I haven't yet made my way to the rich storehouse of info about children's rhythms. But I now know why I have always walked like a Wood (not an Egyptian). I thought I simply learned that from my mother, who loved to start wordy, shouting fights. She was the Wood, thought I, trying to force myself into the "Earth" mold years ago. (That takes on new meaning -- earth mold -- but that is indeed how it felt to put myself into the wrong psychological box, moldy!!) I am not one who backs down easily, and I will always speak up for my rights, or others'. It's odd because I love to dance, and my kinds of dancing are graceful, not stomping. But moving off the dance floor? Stomp, stomp, stomp. Haha! Wow, even my secondary element explains so much about who I am. I'm so grateful to this book! Understanding that Water is my primary way of relating to and moving in the world has answered so many other questions and dilemmas for me. I feel like someone opened my cage and said, "Yes! Be yourself! It is a very legitimate way to be! You are not crazy! You simply move through life in a way that others may not." Second to understanding myself is the breaking light of "Ah ha!" regarding friends and family. "No wonder!!" I keep exclaiming. I will be forever grateful to Dondi Dahlin for sharing her own stories of discovery and for completing the painstaking work to accurately depict the Five Elements of ancient tradition. And to come up with self-tests that have proven, in my experience, far more effective than taking someone else's word for it. If you love to discover what makes your own heart tick, you'll love this book!

Absolutely marvelous book, chockfull of good to know information about you and others.