Amazon Prime Free Trial
FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button and confirm your Prime free trial.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited FREE Prime delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
$20.00$20.00
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
$13.85$13.85
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Jenson Books Inc
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Audible sample
The Five Elements: Understand Yourself and Enhance Your Relationships with the Wisdom of the World's Oldest Personality Type System Paperback – Illustrated, September 27, 2016
Purchase options and add-ons
Dondi Dahlin shows us that we are all born with individual rhythms that go beyond the influence of our genes and upbringing. The five elements originated in ancient Chinese medicine over 2,000 years ago--when scholars theorized that the universe is composed of five forces: water, wood, fire, earth, and metal. Understanding these elements helps us stay in balance physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. By explaining the efficacy of wood, the depth of water, the joy of fire, the compassion of earth, and the wisdom of metal, this book helps people understand themselves and form lasting connections to others, answering the age-old question of why we do what we do.
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherTarcherPerigee
- Publication dateSeptember 27, 2016
- Dimensions7.02 x 0.74 x 6.99 inches
- ISBN-100399176292
- ISBN-13978-0399176296
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Editorial Reviews
Review
—Publishers Weekly
"With the world becoming ever more hurried and busy, understanding personality differences has never been more important. The Five Elements is a key to this understanding, as well as fun, easy to read, and fascinating!"
—Jack Canfield, coauthor of The Success Principles and the Chicken Soup for the Soul series
"This wonderful book brings ancient wisdom to life and makes it practical for everyone to understand. When you know aspects of yourself and others through nature's elements, how the world and all those who inhabit her work will begin to make complete sense."
—James Van Praagh, TV producer, spiritual medium, and bestselling author of Talking to Heaven
"Dondi is a master of the Five Elements personality system, and presents them in a way we can use in our lives to live more joyfully and understand the steps in our journey. An invaluable book for all of us interested in the wisdom and energy medicine teachings of east and west!"
—Alberto Villoldo, PhD, shaman, healer, and bestselling author of One Spirit Medicine
“This marvelous book teaches you an exquisite system for understanding how you and others operate in all conditions and describes how you can vibrationally call towards you much more of what you desire."
—SARK, coauthor & artist of Succulent Wild Love
"The Five Elements takes an ancient system used in the Chinese culture and puts it in a modern context. This is the perfect blend of the old with the new, a very useful tool everyone can use to find out about themselves and their relationships. Dondi’s enthusiastic style and practical wisdom brings The Five Elements to life!"
—Lisa Garr, host of The Aware Show
"After several decades of media exposure, what more can be written about Chinese medicine? Plenty. Dondi Dahlin's incredible book The Five Elements is practical, comprehensive, and authentic—not esoteric, fragmented, or a vestige of New Age Pop Psychology. In other words, not only is The Five Elements a book for all seasons, it is a book for all reasons."
—Stanley Krippner, PhD, coauthor of Personal Mythology and Haunted by Combat
“Baffling characteristics of friends, lovers, and family become understandable when viewed through the lens of the Five Elements. A dive deep into the time-tested concepts in this book can unlock the full range of your wholeness, harmony, and joy.”
—Dawson Church, PhD, author of The Genie in Your Genes
“Dondi Dahlin’s book is full of ‘aha’ moments and practical and powerful exercises that can be transformative for all personality types. You’ll find the code that will open the combination to yourself.”
—Agapi Stassinopoulos, author of Unbinding the Heart
“Over thousands of years, Chinese medicine not only developed a map of the human body, but also a map of the human spirit. With her brilliant knowledge of the Chinese Five Elements, Dondi Dahlin is the perfect guide to show you how to read your personal map!”
—Jean Haner, author of The Wisdom of Your Face and Your Hidden Symmetry
“Many books about the Five Elements are written academically like a medical text book. Dondi Dahlin, from her years of experience and mastery of this ancient wisdom, has written The Five Elements with the layperson in mind, blending Western and Eastern cultures, with ease and fun.”
—Robert Peng, The Master Key: Qigong Secrets for Vitality, Love, and Wisdom
"Dondi has performed for many celebrities and spent a life in show business. She takes those experiences and combines them with her knowledge of the Chinese Five Elements in intriguing and fascinating stories that will keep you captivated! The Five Elements is a fun and profound book that may just change the way you look at life."
—Miles Copeland, entertainment executive/founder of IRS Records and manager of The Police and Sting
“If you love understanding what makes yourself and others tick, this is the book for you. Be prepared to want to read The Five Elements cover to cover in one sitting!”
—Heather Dane, health coach and coauthor with Louise Hay of Loving Yourself to Great Health and The Bone Broth Secret
"I read Dondi’s new book and could barely keep from laughing out loud in recognition! She achieved her goal of helping me to understand not only how and why I behave as I do, but how I can have more compassion and deeper understanding for how others behave. This book is funny, powerful, and valuable for anyone wondering why we act like we do!"
—Lauren Walker, author of Energy Medicine Yoga and one of Sonima's 100 most influential yoga teachers in America
"The Five Elements will grow your compassion and appreciation of people. It's simple, yet so profound. It is a thoughtful approach to a time-tested system."
—Homayoun Sadeghi, MD, author of The Art of Healthy Living: A Mind-Body Approach to Inner Balance and Natural Vitality
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
My friend Kelly had been trying to find love on singles’ websites. She told me that there are lots of questions on matchmaking sites about likes, dislikes, desires, and a person’s job and family that don’t really tell you much about the person. For instance, singles’ Web sites certainly don’t tell you how the person behaves under stress. This may be the most important key to a relationship and is probably the biggest reason for breakups and divorce—because people behave differently when under stress, and many times they cannot see eye to eye. Kelly said, “I wish I could just go onto one of these sites, say that I am primarily a Water/Earth type, and have everyone know what that means. Then I would find my soul mate much quicker and we would undoubtedly stay together for the rest of our lives!”
Gain Confidence and Clarity with the Help of an Ancient System
The Five Elements have been a part of my daily life since I was a teenager. My mom raised me and my sister to navigate life by understanding how Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal manifest in the world and in people, and this understanding has truly helped me become who I am today. I have learned how to have patience, understanding, and compassion for people when stress, anger, and frustration could have gotten the best of me. My deep knowledge of this system has strengthened my ability to get along with others instead of letting the nitty-gritty details of life bog me down. It has helped me to negotiate tricky situations in work and uncomfortable phases in relationships and to find a deep and lasting confidence in myself.
Growing Up with the Five Elements
My mother, Donna Eden, taught me and my sister the Five Elements when we were young. She said they would never fail us. As a world-renowned healer who can see energies in the body—darkness and light, flowing (wellness) and not flowing (illness)—she knew she what was talking about. My mom has a kind of X-ray vision that allows her to see not just the vibrations and energy of peoples’ bodies down to their organs and bones, but also the vibrations and energy of their hearts and souls. She cannot remember when she didn’t see, feel, know, and experience people’s “rhythms” and their primary elements of Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal. Later, as an adult, she encountered teachers who taught her the formal Five Element system that is described in ancient Chinese medical texts and is fundamental to traditional Chinese medicine. Only then did she realize what she had always been experiencing. Today, Mom teaches Eden Energy Medicine all over the world, a healing method developed by her based on nine energy systems in the body. The Five Elements is one of those systems.
These days, my sister and I both work closely with our mom as she travels internationally giving workshops to teach and heal people. But when I became a teenager and young woman, I was often perplexed by how different the three of us were from one another. Our mom was born with a double blessing but also a spiritual burden: Not only can she heal people—and feels that she was born to heal people—but she also is an Earth/Fire combination. Strong Earth types are pulled deep from their core to serve people and will give up everything to make sure people are happy and that peace resides in their hearts. If Earths are not devoting their time to making people feel good, life just doesn’t feel right. Taking care of themselves always comes second. Like Earths, Fires also love people, and they love feeling joy and pleasure. If they can recruit everyone around them to feel the same joy that they feel, then life is wonderful.
But this pressing need to give, help, and heal has a downside, too. Mom’s urgency to comfort and help people comes from a deeply spiritual place that she has had since she was born, and it cannot just be turned off by logic. Mom would take needy people into our home and give them money, food, and whatever else they asked for, even if they were total strangers and even though we didn’t have much money to begin with. As a teenager, I started to move strongly into my Wood element, and I found myself angry and frustrated. I was starting to form the strong opinions that typically come with being a Wood. One of those opinions was that people needed to take responsibility for themselves. Plus, in the early eighties we were living on food stamps and government-issue cheese blocks, so how could we take total strangers into our home and give them our precious food?
When I was young, I didn’t understand my mom’s Earth/Fire. As a Wood, my tendency was to think that people who do good should be rewarded and people who don’t should be punished. As I came to understand the Five Elements better, I realized that it is actually torture for Earths not to help others. They simply cannot bear the pain of seeing someone suffer or struggle. I have seen Earth types (my mom included) wither and weaken if their ability to serve people or animals is curbed or hampered in any way. My mom and the Five Elements taught me that it is not fair to stand in judgment or to see the world in black and white—ever.
Growing up, I also saw that my friends didn’t have a system like the Five Elements to explain or depersonalize normal but challenging life events. We were all experiencing our parent’s divorces, peer pressure, the confusing surges of hormones, and first romantic relationships. When parents started divorcing—as mine had done—my friends would cry at school. They seemed lost. Divorce is never pain-free, but I seemed to have more space in myself to accept my parents’ divorce because I was familiar with the Five Elements. I understood that my mom’s Earth and my dad’s Wood were at odds (see the Button Pushers, pages 233–35). When my dad was angry or even enraged, I saw that he was a stressed-out Wood/Fire. When my mom was emotional and panicking, I saw that she was a stressed out Earth/Fire. Not only were they from different generations with different values, but their elements were different, and because of this they weren’t able to resonate with each other and be a healthy couple together.
Are You Balanced or Imbalanced?
In this book, we talk about balance and imbalance and what it means to be a balanced Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, or Metal. Simply put, balance is the harmony of your body and mind. To have balance is to not be saddled with chemical, emotional, mental, spiritual, or psychological issues. It is to have wholeness, harmony, and joy in the mind, body, and spirit. Imbalance might be repressed emotions or a physical illness that is limiting the full potential of your personality and your authentic self, to shine.
In each phase of my life, the Five Elements have showed me that other people’s imbalance has little to do with me. It’s not a comment on my worth or even their feelings for me. I can still care for them and make clearheaded choices. For instance, when a dear friend decided that she would end our friendship because I didn’t have time to do daily meditation with her, I understood that it was her Metal out of balance. Metals have a lot of need for reverence, and if you don’t share their cherished ideas and standards, on their terms, they can get put off. My busy life simply didn’t allow me to revere her the way she required. Because I am familiar with the Metal element, I didn’t take her decision personally. Similarly, when I once spent time with a friend who scheduled the entire day with bike rides, walks, and exercise, followed by parties all night, I knew this was her Fire energy, not a test to see how much endurance I had. If I hadn’t known the elements, I might have assumed that she was competing with me. When a Water boyfriend went into a place of self-pity where I seemed to have no impact, instead of thinking it was about me, I understood that this is often what imbalanced Waters do. When my Wood father was incredibly stern and spoke to me in black and white terms, I knew it was his Wood element making him seem angrier than he actually felt. And, when my aunt always seemed to be upset that I didn’t visit her more, I realized that it was her Earth needing to serve and make me happy, not just a relative guilt-tripping me. In fact, conflicts and differences are rarely personal. More often they are brought on by elements being out of balance.
The Five Elements have filled a gap for me, a gap that for many people is filled with unnecessary guilt, shame, fear, frustration, and sadness. I’ve watched friends and acquaintances struggle and suffer because they don’t have this easy and helpful system to help them understand, through the challenging times, themselves and others, or to let them really embrace the good times and good connections. As a person who spent most of my life in show business in performances around the world, the Five Elements also helped guide me through hectic schedules, unknown cultures, intense criticism, and the extreme competition of working on stage and in film and television.
I’m deeply grateful for my mom’s early teachings. Instead of letting my true elements be destroyed by school or home life, she taught me to embrace them and to be proud of my elemental makeup. And she was right: Through countless personal, social, and business relationships in my life, the Five Elements have never failed me. Rather, this system has helped me to excel in most everything I ever attempted—and to be OK when I didn’t. It has “saved” my life more than once. Ultimately, it helps all—without exception—to foster a truer and deeper acceptance of themselves and others than they could possibly muster on their own.
An Ancient System from China
The system of the Five Elements began with acupuncture, a healing practice that grew out of a four- to five-thousand-year-old Asian medical tradition. In The Inner Canon, a two-thousand-year-old medical text, Chinese physicians and scholars theorized that the universe is composed of forces represented by Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal—the Five Elements. They proposed that human behavior, emotions, and health are influenced by these elements and that people’s personalities can be distinguished by them.
One of the reasons that this system is hard for us to comprehend in the West is because the innate energy, intuition, and personal rhythm that we are born with is often destroyed by family, school, and society.
Professor J. R. Worsley (1923–2003) is credited with bringing Five Element acupuncture to the West. After receiving his doctorate in acupuncture in Asia in the fifties, he founded the College of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture in England in 1956 and, by 1975, also had a location in the United States. Worsley taught that every human being is born with an imbalance in the Five Elements and that that imbalance is the underlying cause of illness. If you can find the imbalance, you can cure the illness and prevent other illnesses. He also taught that imbalances in the five elements could influence more than just physical health—they had an impact on the extent to which one grows socially and emotionally to become more self-aware and, ultimately, happier. He was clear that he was passing along a system that was practiced for thousands of years in China and was based on laws that do not change and will not change. He also warned that we are more complex than just five types and that it’s important not to draw conclusions based on categorizations. Judgments and labels based on categorizations lead to faulty conclusions.
Worsley taught that ultimately it was possible to recognize the authentic self through an understanding of the Five Elements. Understanding this system and how your elemental combination affects your life can bring enlightenment and freedom because it can lift you out of judgment. He wanted his students to love one another and think beyond separateness to the true heart and soul of the person.
Why Haven’t I Heard of the Five Elements?
Chances are you have heard of acupuncture, an ancient Chinese system for bringing the body back into balance by using hair-thin needles on different parts of the skin to activate certain acupressure points. You might also have heard of feng shui, a method for balancing the energies in rooms and spaces so that it can flow freely and assure health and good fortune for the people in that space. Embedded in these systems is the theory of the Five Elements: both acupuncture and feng shui draw almost exclusively on its wisdom.
However, you may not have heard much about the Five Elements themselves. We can trace this back to Chairman Mao Zedong, the Chinese dictator who dominated China for much of the twentieth century. He came into power in 1949 and by the 1960s he had suppressed the Five Elements and feng shui, as well as many other cultural and spiritual practices in China—anything that would promote individuality. He then created “traditional Chinese medicine” (TCM), which is not actually a historical method but a grouping of unrelated and sometimes competing modalities, so he could have one unified medicine. In his quest to “modernize” China, he attempted to erase the past because such ancient systems as the Five Elements—a system that recognized people as individuals and helped them to lead happier and healthier lives—threatened his agenda. He sought to make everyone think the same, feel the same, look the same, and be the same so he could completely control them. Mao’s desire for ultimate power over his people seems to be the reason why he collapsed the vast country’s five time zones into one (which is a huge problem today), all because he wanted people to eat their rice at the same time.
It is said that Chairman Mao deeply understood that feng shui has the power to make people wealthy and powerful. He worried that someone might use it to produce an emperor to take his throne. Therefore he burned and destroyed many documents, buildings, and artifacts that recorded the ancient wisdom of the Five Elements and feng shui. Much of the tradition’s history is gone forever.
The Five Elements Expand Your Compassion
Even so, thanks to the work of people like Professor J. R. Worsley, and the brave people of China, knowledge of the Five Elements survived the reign of Mao. The system is uncomplicated, straightforward, and deeply enlightening, helping us to stay in balance physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally—or to return to balance after unhealthy living, illness, stress, or other disturbances. Once you know the tendencies of Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal, you also start to understand the pulse of certain eras, the architecture and emotional feel of buildings, the culture and heritage of countries, the demeanor and personalities of animals, and even the political climates and attitudes of certain parts of the world.
At first, you may feel that the elements put people (or situations) into categories or boxes, or stick shallow and arbitrary labels on them. In my experience however, when you start working with this system, it forces you to reexamine and expand what you think you know about people and events. It squashes our generalizations and our assumptions, reminding us that everyone and everything is an individual and everyone has a different rhythm. For example, it’s easy for a Water, who spends a lot of time ruminating and thinking about life, to get depressed or feel overwhelmed under stress. A Wood’s likely response to stress, on the other hand, is to become angry and aggressive with people. A Fire will need lively, energetic people with fun activities to keep him or her in balance. An Earth will want supportive friends and family around to help out. And a Metal will probably detach from people and things while under stress.
Once you understand that everyone has a challenge with his or her dominant element, and reacts to stress in their own way, then you no longer feel alone in your experiences. The elements remind us that we are all human, we are all flawed, and most of us have a buckling point when we’re stressed. The elements will help you forgive yourself and others when that buckling point comes. An awareness of them will ease your tendency toward judgment and allow you to feel true admiration and appreciation of yourself and all human beings.
I believe that the Five Elements can enable us to think beyond separateness. This is something I deeply appreciate about them. While we don’t all have to be friends, we can have a true understanding of one another, knowing that we are all connected through human experience. Knowing this makes life and relationships less stressful. It naturally takes us beyond the influence of our genes and our upbringing. It’s like having a life raft that will help you to stay afloat and not crash into the rocks. You can also offer your life raft to others to prevent needless pain and suffering for them, as well.
What to Expect from This Book
The personality tests developed by Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers have helped businesses everywhere build teamwork among their employees, not to mention helping people find their true vocation in life and true love on dating sites. The enneagram (nine type) system popularized by Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo, based on work by G. I. Gurdjieff and ancient authors, has provided a useful model for understanding human personalities. Likewise, the Five Elements will empower you to understand yourself and engage with others in a way that is immediate, practical, potent, and lasting. It will create a new understanding of all relationships and cultivate a happier you.
This book is for you if you have ever thought to yourself:
· “I can’t believe she said that!”
· “In a thousand years, I wouldn’t have done what he did!”
· “That’s so unbelievable!”
Or if you have:
· Wondered why people do what they do
· Been confused about why people say what they say
· Wanted to cry, scream, or laugh hysterically because of how people act
· Been confused about why your partner never changes or your brother, mother, or sister behave the same dysfunctional way again and again
· Not known how to talk to someone because they are so different from you
· Been shocked speechless by the way someone has treated you
· Been interested in feeling less misunderstood, angry, or alone
· Been interested in having more ease and more of a sense of humor in life
The Five Elements can help you figure out people and situations so that you aren’t perplexed by them anymore. The concept will help you be able to talk to people, understand events, have true compassion, and go through life without taking everything so painfully to heart. It gives you a key to being able to accept and let go, rather than be in judgment and hold on. It invites you to be authentic, to connect with others in a way that you may not have experienced before, and to let go of limiting beliefs.
As you learn, you’ll be able to sit back, breathe, and understand that all people have their own limitations (especially under stress), even when they are trying their very best. You’ll be able to connect with others and break through energy barriers that are there even when our eyes cannot see them. This system will bring you peace, joy, and an understanding that can help you everywhere with everyone—in your workplace, at home, and in your social life. It’s a proven way to make your life easier and less challenging.
In fact, understanding the Five Elements will help you become your best self.
NIKE • Just Do It.
· WATER Let’s have dinner while we talk about doing it.
· WOOD It’s done. I did it yesterday.
· FIRE Woo-hoo! Everyone’s doing it!
· EARTH Can we do it together?
· METAL It’s not about doing; it’s about being.
Discover your element at http://learnthefiveelements.com/5-elements-quiz/
Product details
- Publisher : TarcherPerigee; Illustrated edition (September 27, 2016)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0399176292
- ISBN-13 : 978-0399176296
- Item Weight : 1 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.02 x 0.74 x 6.99 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #64,796 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #209 in Popular Psychology Personality Study
- #1,049 in Happiness Self-Help
- #1,740 in Personal Transformation Self-Help
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Dondi Dahlin grew up in the world of Energy Medicine and show biz. She co-authored The Little Book of Energy Medicine with her mom Donna Eden, and her book The Five Elements became a best-seller when it was released in 2016.
Dondi is a sought-after speaker and MC for conventions and conferences and has been seen on Hay House, Shift Network, OMEGA Institute, Mindvalley, and ACEP. She is also a popular teacher and she travels with her Mom, spreading Eden Energy Medicine and the Five Elements through international workshops.
Along with Energy Medicine, Dondi also grew up in the world of show business. She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, and won the titles of both “Belly Dancer of the Universe” and “Outstanding Speaker in the Nation.” She has been seen in over 100 commercials, performed in over 30 countries, and is one of the few American dancers to have had a successful career in the Middle East.
Dondi’s home-base is California where she homeschools her son and lives in a 1904 house, which she fought for two years to get historically designated by the city of San Diego.
Go here to take Dondi's popular quiz so you discover your element: www.LearnTheFiveElements.com
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book informative and helpful for understanding themselves and others. They describe it as an interesting read with clear descriptions and examples of real-life situations. The book is described as easy to understand and follow, making it enjoyable to read and talk about with others. Readers appreciate the author's eloquent storytelling and creative suggestions and exercises that assist adults in helping children. They also mention that the food content is useful for identifying and nourishing their dominant element.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book helpful in understanding themselves and others. They appreciate the thorough descriptions and how it sparks great conversations. The book provides recommendations for dealing with certain elements and ways to rebalance.
"This book is a great way to understand your fellow person and family. A must read." Read more
"...Well, this book has liberated me!! I am ecstatic! The thorough descriptions helped, but more importantly, the comprehensive self-tests,..." Read more
"...The book also has what foods to eat and famous people. Fascinating reading." Read more
"easily readable and informative" Read more
Customers find the book easy to read and informative. They describe it as a good, solid book with clear language. However, some readers found the information inaccurate.
"...A must read." Read more
"This is a terrific book, I bought one for my mum too. Thinking that I was a water element, I focused on that chapter. Then did the quizzes...." Read more
"...This book is spot on, informative and enjoyable!..." Read more
"...Uh, nothing. There's some good content here, but while she says in every chapter that most people are a combination of more than one..." Read more
Customers find the book easy to understand and apply. They appreciate the clear explanations of complex concepts with examples from real-life situations. The author provides practical suggestions for ways to use the various element types. The format is easy to follow and navigate, with lots of tips that are doable for real life. Overall, customers say the book helps them recognize blueprints within themselves.
"easily readable and informative" Read more
"...Dondi Dahlin's writing is conversational and easy to understand without prior knowledge of the subject." Read more
"...I really love that the author gives practical suggestions for ways that the various element types can work together in harmony and complement each..." Read more
"...For me this book recognize blueprints within ourselves...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book. They find it informative and engaging, making it fun to talk about with others.
"...This book is spot on, informative and enjoyable!..." Read more
"...Easy to read and to apply. Poetic, entertaining, and thought-provoking!..." Read more
"This book is both informative and entertaining. Understanding the five elements provide a deeper understanding of people and their personalities." Read more
"...We have had hours of fun doing the questions at get-togethers. Sparks some really great conversations." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's compassion. They say it brings understanding and a greater compassion for all.
"...I feel that, after reading this book, I have a greater appreciation for my fellow humans and that I have a means by which to operate among them..." Read more
"...one more tool to bring all of us to a greater awareness and compassion for one another. Sharon Tawfilis MA, LMFT, EEM-CP." Read more
"...relate, and connect to others in a more authentic and compassionate way...." Read more
"...a crucial time in our culture when bridging understanding and cultivating compassion for each other is sorely needed! Easy to read and to apply...." Read more
Customers find the stories engaging and informative. They appreciate the author's ability to weave personal experiences into her narratives. The book includes creative suggestions and exercises that help adults assist children.
"...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-..." Read more
"Dondi eloquently weaves interesting stories from her personal experiences while bringing to life an ancient system in modern day language...." Read more
"...Each chapter offers creative suggestions and exercises that assist adults to help children to channel and balance their precious energies!" Read more
"Great combination of quirky stories and actual information about the five elements as they relate to our organs and overall wellbeing." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's food content. They find it informative and interesting, with recommendations for foods to eat. The book helps readers identify their dominant element and nourish it.
"...The book also has what foods to eat and famous people. Fascinating reading." Read more
"...personal examples and tools to help you identify and nourish your particular dominant element...." Read more
"The Five Elements - Juicy, Alive and Informative..." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2024This book is a great way to understand your fellow person and family. A must read.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2017For 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!
- Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2023This is a terrific book, I bought one for my mum too. Thinking that I was a water element, I focused on that chapter. Then did the quizzes. Nope, I am an earth first, water second. Makes me wonder if I am not being true to myself - hmm. Excellent book Dondi, thank you. We do all have the elements but one is primary with one or two secondaries. The book also has what foods to eat and famous people. Fascinating reading.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2016easily readable and informative
- Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2017I read this book, exactly as indicated by my Water element,, skipping around and taking it in, matching my friends and family with their own elements. I must say, my skepticism vanished as the personalities of those closest to me were described and explained in surprisingly accurate detail. I gained some much needed insight into some of the more difficult people inhabiting my world, and often found myself laughing and nodding my head in agreement with much that I read. The Five Elements gives you a quick snapshot of personality in a few pages that would take a long time to develop from observation and interaction with a person, giving effective suggestions and direction in dealing with each element type. There are checklists / quizzes to help determine your primary and secondary elements , as well as descriptions of each element's underlying motivations, and behavior under stress or fear. Dondi Dahlin's writing is conversational and easy to understand without prior knowledge of the subject.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2022I have been an acupuncturist working professionally with five element theory for over ten years. This book is spot on, informative and enjoyable! This book brought some life and relatability to the elements- had great personal examples and tools to help you identify and nourish your particular dominant element. I actually got this on audible first as a fun listen and liked it so much I bought the printed copy. This book is great for professionals, their clients and people interested in bringing balance into their lives.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2016It is quite rare for a work of non-fiction to be a page-turner that I stay up late reading long after my cherished bedtime, yet this one did just that. It is impressive how eloquently the author communicates the ancient system of the five elements to the modern reader. I soaked up every story, every description, and every idea as though I was dying of thirst and the words on the page were a tall drink of water. Learning about different personality types has never been so FUN! As I read the explanation of each element, I was able to recognize people in my life – or at times myself – and gain a greater sense of understanding as well as greater compassion for us all. I really love that the author gives practical suggestions for ways that the various element types can work together in harmony and complement each other in relationships. I feel that, after reading this book, I have a greater appreciation for my fellow humans and that I have a means by which to operate among them more successfully and more satisfyingly. I wish everyone would read this book and therefore view one another through the elements – what a world that would be!
- Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2024Good information and worth reading.
Top reviews from other countries
-
GabrielaReviewed in Mexico on July 5, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Mejor de lo que pensaba
Grata sorpresa la lectura de este libro. La autora de una manera fácil y a veces divertida te lleva de la mano para comprender mejor tus comportamientos y sentires. Me encantó esta herramienta que podemos emplear en nosotros y con la familia para mejorar nuestra relación con uno mismo y nuestro entorno. Lo recomiendo.
- Tracy GallagherReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 26, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Love love love this book!
Absolutely loved this book and refer back to it many times 💕💕💕
-
VeronicaReviewed in Spain on April 5, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars buena descripción de los elementos
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
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Canada on November 15, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Fast and efficient
I received the book in pristine condition and m so happy with it.
- RosebudReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Recommend!
I have been looking for a book to explain the Five Elements in a modern way and this did exactly that. I read nearly all of it in one sitting, easy to read and I now have a much better understanding of the Five Elements which is something I've wanted to learn for years. Would highly recommend to anyone who has heard of the Five Elements and wants to understand how they work.