Earth Wind Fire Water

At the heart of optimism is living life to the fullest: feeling alive.  Eleanor Roosevelt said “Do one thing every day that scares you”.

As a volunteer at CKUW 95.9FM I interviewed Chad, a master herbalist at Hollow Reed Holistic.  He told me how life is about balance. He began by describing different personality types: water, fire, earth and wind. Each personality type has its strengths and weaknesses. For example, a water personality is easy going but almost to a fault. He said "we want the Red River but we don't want the Red River spilling over the entire city" Sometimes a water personality needs a little bit of fire in their lives to get things done. "In nature the elements need to be in balance - we are an ecosystem - a mini earth" said Chad. 

Here is my interview with Chad on Habits: 

http://soundcloud.com/alex-wenger/chad-cornellpart1

http://soundcloud.com/alex-wenger/chad-cornell-part-2

Learn more about Hollow Reed Holistic at:

http://www.hollowreedholistic.ca

Which personality type are you?

Earth:

Strengths - Predicable, logical, structural, calm and focused

Weaknesses – Stubborn, perfectionist, can loose sight of goals

Wind:

Strengths – Spontaneous, energetic, optimistic, handles change well

Weakness – Restless, unpredictable, hard to get to know, nervous

Fire:

Strengths - Passionate, fearless, enthusiastic and confident

Weakness – Impatient, bossy, impulsive, dramatic

Water:

Strengths – Patient, problem solver, team player, sociable

Weakness – People pleaser, over identifies with others, hard time saying no

http://www.astro.com/astrology/in_elements_e.htm

My personality type best corresponds with wind. Although I identify with water as well. On a regular day I might shy away from being in front of a large crowd of 5,740 Goldeyes fans; but never again. I decided to add a bit of fire to my day. Carpe Diem. When given an opportunity like this one I couldn’t pass it up:

The family activity this week was the Goldeyes baseball game. Janessa fellow classmate, friend and Goldeyes employee asked if my sister and I wanted to participate in the field game. My mission: to spin ten times then run to the finish line. Sounded easy enough. Wrong.

Here I am spinning...

Here’s me doing a belly flop…

…and here’s me at the finish line collecting my diploma!

You can’t see how I fell or how many times. You also don’t hear the booming laughter and the fans cheering for us. Before the ‘Bat Spin’ game my heart couldn’t stop racing and the anticipation kept building. My sister Dani turned to me and asked ‘how did I ever let you talk me into this?’ She knows as well as I do that her curiosity got the better of her. What an adrenaline rush. I won after my sister fell on her bottom and was unable to get up.  

 My message today is ‘challenge yourself’.  It’s exhilarating to step outside your comfort zone or personality type and experience something new. If you’re a water, wind or earth personality bring a little fire into your life and liven things up. Try zip lining, rock climbing or get up on stage for some Karaoke. What is there to be afraid of? I counter whatever you think with Ms. Frizzle from the Magic school bus: “take chances and make mistakes”. If you never try you’ll never know.