After I had my son in swimming lessons for a year, he impressed one of the other mommy onlookers. She had her daughter in her first swim lesson at the local YMCA that day, and she was commenting about her daughter’s fear of putting her head under water.
While her daughter was in the pool, the mom and I got to talking, and she sounded like a METAL child — she had no attachment to her four-year-old classmates from a preschool she no longer attended, she was quiet and introverted, and she was quick to point out if something wasn’t fair, like if another child didn’t get a turn at something.
I mentioned the possibility that maybe she just wasn’t ready for swim lessons, and that maybe she should wait a year. But she revealed that they had a pool at their house, and that they had a swim teacher come over for private lessons after the child fell into the pool by accident one day. Clearly the little girl needed to learn to swim.
I asked her mother, “Does she like music?”
“Yes, actually she does.”
“Then try having her take swim lessons at home while you play her favorite songs.”
“Each element is associated with a particular sound, and Earth’s sound is singing.”
Why did I suggest that? If has to do with the 5 elements. The elements interact mostly in two cycles — the nourishing cycle and the control cycle. Here I will lay out the nourishing cycle.
Wood nourishes Fire
Fire nourishes Earth
Earth nourishes Metal
Metal nourishes Water
Water nourishes Wood
Each element is associated with a particular sound, and Earth’s sound is singing.
Since Earth nourishes Metal, I suspected that playing songs would nourish and relax  her METAL daughter and be more likely to put her head under water and learn to swim.
She is still working on her swim lessons, but she IS willing to put her head under water now, and that’s a big shift!
Sometimes we can use the 5 elements to balance out our children and help them move on to the next challenge! What is YOUR biggest challenge with your children right now? Please comment below or email me via my “Contact” page if you prefer more privacy. For a one-page reference guide to raising the metal child, please contact us.
