Seeking Center: The Podcast

Taoism + Your Untapped Potential - Episode 43

December 05, 2022 Robyn Miller Brecker, Karen Loenser and Tisha Morris Season 2 Episode 43
Seeking Center: The Podcast
Taoism + Your Untapped Potential - Episode 43
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

We love having conversations with people that can help all of us unlock our hidden potential because isn’t that the goal of this lifetime - to live our highest potential?

And how cool is it when someone is able to put a modern spin on ancient wisdom?! Tisha Morris does just that in her latest book, "Missing Element, Hidden Strength."

While all five Chinese elements, water, wood, fire, earth, and metal, are contained within our energy system, we each embody a primary element, which defines our natural strengths, and a weak or missing element, which reflects our untapped potential.

When you embrace your missing element―water, wood, fire, earth, or metal―you can pull yourself out of a rut and bring more harmony and success into your life and work. Moving your desk to the power position and expressing your energy with clothing are just a couple of the ways to awaken dormant aspects of yourself and integrate your creative right-brain with your business left-brain.

Author, life coach, feng shui expert, and entertainment lawyer Tisha Morris teaches you how to apply the ancient wisdom of Taoist principles, so you can identify and improve your most challenging element.

It's time to turn your missing element into your hidden strength.

Visit TishaMorris.com to learn more about Tisha’s new book, "Missing Element, Hidden Strength," and to take the quiz to find out your “missing element.” Plus, you can find out about her other books as well.

You can also follow her at:
www.instagram.com/tishalmorris
www.tiktok.com/@tishalmorris
www.facebook.com/tishamorrisauthor
www.linkedin.com/in/tishamorris

Visit theseekingcenter.com for more from Robyn + Karen, plus mega inspo -- and the best wellness + spiritual practitioners, products and experiences on the planet!

You can also follow Seeking Center on Instagram @theseekingcenter

Robyn: [00:00:00] We love having conversations with people that can help all of us unlock our hidden potential because isn't that the goal of this lifetime to live our highest potential? And how cool is it when someone is able to put a modern spin on ancient wisdom?

 Tisha Morris does just that in her latest book, missing Element, hidden Strength. While all five Chinese elements, water, wood, fire, earth, and metal are contained within our energy system, we each embody a primary element which defines our natural strengths and a weak or missing element, which reflects our untapped.

When you embrace your missing element, you can pull yourself out of a rut and bring more harmony and success into your life and work. Moving your desk to the power position and expressing your energy with clothing are just a couple of the ways to awaken dormant aspects of yourself and integrate your creative right brain with your business left.

Author, life coach, feng shui expert and entertainment lawyer. Tisha Morris teaches you how to apply the ancient wisdom of taoist principles so you [00:01:00] can identify and improve your most challenging element. It's time to turn your missing element into your hidden strength. Let's get talking. Hi, Tisha

Tisha: hi Hia. Hi Karen. Hi, Robyn. Thank you so much. I feel like the introduction summed it all up . 

No, just the 

Karen: beginning. Robyn and I were prepping for this podcast. We talked so much about it. I wish you'd been there. Because there is so much to this, and even in just the title. I think that the whole idea that, Robyn just said in the intro there's so much ancient wisdom that we don't know, so this is one of our very favorite subjects So let's start at the beginning.

What inspired you to write this book? 

Tisha: So it actually the title just dropped in from the sky one day. Which we'll learn here in a few minutes that's actually the water phase of the five elements. When an idea just drops in and. The words missing element, hidden strength just came out of nowhere.

And I work with the elements at the Feng Shui practitioner. And so I knew what it was referring to. And so I jotted it down in my notes app on my phone. And it wasn't the time then to write the book. And then it was really during the [00:02:00] pandemic when, number one, I needed a project , but number two, I felt like it was time for this book to be born because of the times that we were in, but more importantly, the times that we're moving into as a result or on the other end.

And that is really looking to nature and looking to these ancient wisdom principles that really are about co-creating, co-creating with the earth, cocreating with each other, finding harmony. And really going for a win, win for me, win for you and win for the planet. And so the that's really what they speak to.

And so if there was ever a time to bring in some wisdom, it is now. So that's why this book was born when it was there is. So when I started writing the book, I realized Tisha, anytime you write a book, you gotta walk your talk. So I had to really embrace my missing element and put my feet to the fire, a little hint on what that element would be

And so it was a time in my life that I needed to also practice what I preached, so to speak. 

Robyn: I'm thinking about what you're talking about and I think for those listening who don't understand Taoism, Can [00:03:00] you explain that in simplest 

Tisha: terms?

Yeah, I can, because it actually is super simple. So it's a philosophy, not a religion. It's thousands and thousands of years old. It's so old that we don't even have a date. For it. If you ever heard of the iching the book, the iching which translates to the book of Changes, that is considered the oldest book ever written.

and so that is the foundational wisdom. And then Lao Tzu and some of these ancient sage brought this work more into the world and. These taoist principles, we all know them in such cliches that we speak about, and particularly in the spiritual communities of we're all the drops of water in the same ocean, go with the flow.

These are all very D and at its core it says that I'm a mini universe. You're a mini universe. The room you're in right now is a mini universe. We all basically are made up of the same ingredients. And what are those ingredients? They're the five elements. So we all contain the five elements with us on every level.

So our organ systems are the five elements. That's actually what Chinese medicine and [00:04:00] acupuncture is as balancing our organ systems. Balancing the five elements in a space. That's where feng shui starts to come into play. And these elements are represented in different ways. It's not just in their literal sense, but they're also show up symbolically.

 also in our personalities and how we run our energy. And so we all have all five of these personalities, so to speak. I call 'em your inner board of directors, where you can call on your water element at any time you want, which is. Your guru. You can call on your wood element anytime you want, which is the leader and the pioneer.

You can call on your fire element when you need that enthusiasm and that burst of boost of energy. You can call on your inner metal element when you need more precision and focus and you call on the earth element when you need to rest and also gather and I think more on the material plane.

 So we have all of these at our disposal, so to speak. But there's one that we really lead with. It's what I call our bread and butter. And and then there's one that's that's a little uncomfortable or, it's [00:05:00] not really what my strong suit and that's your missing element.

 Can 

Karen: you just go back really quick cause I wanted to write these down so I could track with you. What was the first one? Water you said was what? 

Tisha: Guru, your inner guru. Spiritual it's the element that's closest to the spirit world. It's the intangible.

You're in the water phase when you're in that kind of just taking a walk, journaling, dreaming, meditating, sleeping is the water. Gotcha, . So I got 

Water 

 Would be the leader. . And then fire is the the manifestor. These are just Obviously general archetypes. But they really , sum them up really well. And then the earth element is actually the mother, it's the gatherer. the one who is most interested in everyone getting along, harmonizing. So also the stabilizer, you could call the earth element, the stabilizer.

And and then the metal element there's lots of ways you could think of it it's all about precision. It's the editor all projects need to be culled in some way, and it's the editor.

That really takes all the energy in the fire phase that was used and starts to determine what is needed, [00:06:00] what's not needed. So it's the ultimate editor. Think about if you're shooting a film and you have all this footage, then the editor really it to find the juice, so that's the metal phase. 

Robyn: So helpful. 

 I know we're gonna talk about the process that you've come up with in, in terms of figuring out what you most align with and where you can find what the missing element is as well.

But just talking about these elements, do you. Do certain meditations, do you focus on these on a daily basis to balance them? How does that 

Tisha: work too? Yeah, good question. You can think of it as your general personality types that you know, that you're here with, but you can also think of it in a more acute day to day basis.

And the point is not to. Even across all five elements. The point is find your basic constitution. And so there's a quiz, of course quiz you can take in the book, and it shows how you rank among all five of the elements. Not just like you're this or you're that. You can see what I say is we all have these five ingredients, but the order of them is [00:07:00] different for each of.

Wood might be my first ingredient, cause I have more of that than metal and so forth. Whereas you're your first I can tell Robyn, you're dominant fire , I can tell. And Karen, your wood is your dominant one. So they actually show up in our physical characteristics as well and in our clothing.

So going back to your question, I'm never gonna say meditation's a bad idea by any means, but there's some very practical ways you can start to integrate or embrace this missing element your environment being one of them. So surrounding yourself anything you surround yourself with, you're gonna take in more.

 And this is where the feng shui principles come into play. So if metal, for example, is your missing element, then I suggest bringing actually some metal element items into your space. And so the book gives you rundown Of what each of those elements are represented in your space. So for example, metal, it doesn't have to be a metal object, although that definitely would work.

But also rocks. Gemstones are the metal element. The color [00:08:00] white is the metal element. In fact Karen your backdrop. Is a great example so you're actually already balancing out. So actually I would say actually you're probably second in the metal element.

If we were to you to take the quiz, so you're probably wood first metal second. I think we were probably very similar, your office. Based on what I see now is very heavy in the metal element. So you're, already balancing out a lot of your wood element. So that's just an example of how you can use that in your space, and then also your wardrobe.

This is the power red tie for an interview. That's the fire that represents the fire element. So if you go into an interview, you want a lot of, fire energy. However, if you're going to meditation class , you might be wearing black. That's the water element.

And we all have natural proclivities that we don't even think about, but if you add some more consciousness into this Robyn, you're wearing the animal print, which is a fire element. And I've noticed a lot of my podcast hosts are fire elements because that is the most outgoing of all the elements is the fire element and a lot of podcasts hosts are [00:09:00] great at speaking, great with working with people, Interesting. 

Robyn: And typically I'll wear, and Karen knows as well as I wear a lot of. and my favorite hat is my orange hat. 

Tisha: Yep. Fire elements like to accessorize a lot. Never thought about it. I love, I Now when you look and you 

Karen: meet people, you can kind Yes.

Can you talk a minute about the missing element? So you were saying I could take a quiz in your book and get a sense of where I was dominant, maybe where I was a little bit deficient. So what does the missing element mean and how does that.

Hidden strength. 

Yeah. 

Tisha: This book is obviously the title missing Element, hidden Strength focuses on your missing element. And my point is not just to make your life harder than it already is,

focus on all things that are difficult. it's not really the point. what happens is we usually put all of our. Eggs in our strong basket and then we end up having kind of a shadow of this other element that gets unused or dormant. And if you start integrating that in, and [00:10:00] it could be as something as simple as like these stories that we start to make up of I'm just not a good speaker or, I'm not this or that, these are our missing element this shadow.

And so as we actually start to embrace and become more friendly with this element, we can start to bring it in. And so let me, I'll give a little explanation of how these five elements also make up the creative process. And by creative process, when you get an idea, you start, putting it into motion.

So let's say writing a book, get an idea for a book that would be the water element phase. I start making the outline or putting my ideas on paper. That's the wood phase. And then I start cranking out the whole manuscript. That's the fire phase. That's the most energy of the whole phase.

And then I hit the peak and then I, which is the earth element, start to think about my audience, start to think about how I'm gonna monetize it. That's all the earth element phase. And then from there we move into the metal phase of what needs to now be. Extracted, edited, out, moved around, and you can apply this.

And then you finally finish and you're back in the water phase. [00:11:00] And so you can apply this template to anything that you're creating. Maybe starting a podcast. You get an idea for a podcast, you start brainstorming the titles, the ideas, your concepts. That's the wood phases. All right, so you get the picture.

whatever your missing element is, you're gonna struggle during that phase of the creative process. That makes sense. And so will you finally get past it? Absolutely. Anything you, that any of us have started we've made it through right? , we're all here on this podcast.

But most likely there's some rough edges you've hit upon. And so identifying which phase that is and which probably correlates with your missing element. And so once you start just having more awareness over this, you can start to I don't wanna say accomplish more because it's not about , how much we're accomplishing, but it's a lot about satisfaction.

Really, now's a time for people like y'all to get these messages out into the world. It's more about getting what we need to. Manifesting what we need to with as much ease as possible. And so also with embracing this missing element is also about collaboration and [00:12:00] working in groups.

So if you're missing element as metal, then it's great to pair with someone who's, that's their strength. So this is where working with others can really start to Be an appreciation for each of your strengths and how you best work together. And that can be with collaboration like the two of you or in groups as well.

 It's all about it being a win-win more satisfaction better protectivity who doesn't wanna be more productive but in ways that bring about ease instead of struggle. Karen, we are so doing this . 

Karen: I know. And I'm just thinking for anybody who's listening.

Yes. Now, even looking at what if you are wood? You have a great inspired thought, 

Robyn: . But the 

Karen: If you're missing element is wood, you might have trouble actually actioning. 

Tisha: That's right. 

Karen: I can just see how this can be so applicable to the work environment.

And on top of that, your work environment. So if you are working from home or you have a work space like you said, to be able to balance that out. It does very much translate to feng shui doesn't it? is fun shui built on [00:13:00] the. Principles. Is it built on 

Tisha: taoism?? Yeah. so e the umbrella and under that umbrella is Chinese medicine, which brought us acupuncture, Qigong, but also feng shui

and, other eastern sciences have similar modalities. For example, yoga came out of the Hindu philosophies, ayuverdic medicine and VAs Shara, which is their equivalent of feng shui. And so these eastern sciences, what I love about 'em is they all have a mind, body, and home component to them where they put the energy, the home on the same equal, importa.

Of our physical physical mental health. So that's why I'm a big fan of Eastern Philosophies. And my first book actually titled At Mind Body Home inspired by those Eastern philosophies so shui, so under the Chinese medicine, taoism shui, acupuncture, Chiang, obviously those aren't the only modalities, but those are the ones who have come over to the Western.

The five elements is very much of a foundational principles. And that's actually one of the things that really got me into working with the five elements in your [00:14:00] home was inspired by an acupuncture appointment that I had and my acupuncturist really spoke five elements and.

I was always deficient in the earth element. This was a time when I moved cross country to la from my birthplace in Nashville, which is a very grounding, earthy place to la which is, very ungrounded on fault lines. And so ever since I had moved to LA I was always deficient it in my earth element.

And so I began to Really bring the earth element more into my space to help ground it. And so that's actually what inspired me to write my book before this book, which is called Decorating with the Five Elements of Feng Shui so all these principles really just layer onto one another.

And so this book, missing Element, hidden Strength begins to take those principles more into our own personalities and energy. Yeah, and 

Robyn: I can see even how. I know we talked about how it can help in a work environment, but it really can help in a partnership in your family with your friendships, 

how you could really apply it to all of these [00:15:00] situations. 

Tisha: A hundred percent. You know how we do one thing is how we do everything, and how we partner in work partnerships, how we show up in personal relationships. We're gonna, wherever we go, there we are, right? . And so where it comes in with collaborations I have a whole chapter on collaborations for example, fire and water, water puts out fire.

There's too much water, they'll put out the fire. So a lot of these elements metal will cut down wood. So this happens in relationships quite a bit. So you have a wood person who's all big ideas, the world's my oyster, I'm gonna do accomplish all these things. Whereas the metal element is like, But what's the budget?

what's our time constraints? Is this really realistic? And so the metal comes and just if they're not careful, they'll just chop down the tree . But if you know that about each other, then you can just prune the tree and trim it to A place of sustainable growth.

And so once you have that understanding, you can have an appreciation for one another and really work together because, you can look to gardening as a basis for all of this. And you [00:16:00] have to keep trees trimmed in order for them to grow. And so that. Another way these can really interplay.

And like I said, that appreciation and understanding where your strengths and my strengths lie, and how they can best work together and 

Karen: in the feng shui world. Then I'm just looking around my office too. , Ideally, regardless of what element you're most like, you still want that balance of all of them in some shape or form 

Tisha: in your space, right?

Yeah. there's a lot of layers to that as well. And the space in my other book, decorating the Five Elements, really goes into the layers. But to your question and make it as simple as possible yes. You don't want just a, you. Red room , red desk and red walls and that would be obviously crazy though.

. So yes, I would go for a general balance, but then I would bring in a little bit more of your missing element. So for example, like in your bookshelves, the books that you have, those books would be considered a wood element cuz they're made of paper. The colors start to bring out some other elements.

We have a lot of metal. The white paint is all metal. The [00:17:00] glass is water. And then all the rocks would be metal. So I'm guessing probably in the rest of the office that I can't see. I'm sure there's a variety of things. . 

Robyn: Yes. It's a money 

Tisha: plant, there you go.

. What typically happens for people who are just running off default is they'll actually have an abundant of the element of which they already have a strength then. And so for me, being a primary wood element, if I have too much wood I start to feel a little.

A little too much of myself, . And do you feel like you pick 

Robyn: up on that just naturally too? Can you and I put the words to validate it, but do 

Tisha: you feel that, oh, you take me to a cabin in the woods? And I will go insane. , you know those log like cabins that are like all wood? Yes, very much. And then you're in a wooded a wooded area.

So , even the region in which you live, if there's an extremism about that region, that's gonna really affect your energy as well. For example, if you live in the northwest or it is a lot of woods and a lot of rain, those are water and wood elements. And over abundance.

Arguably and so [00:18:00] you are gonna probably wanna bring in more fire, more yang energy, whereas if you live in the desert with, a lot of sun, a lot of heat, then you're gonna have more darker blinds and all you do is a lot of this stuff just at a practicality.

I noticed when I moved from Nashville to Los Angeles, very different energies and had to. I really change how I did my interiors, cuz in Nashville I needed as much light as possible. Rains a lot there. Here it's the opposite. And sometimes it's oh, I just need a little darker little bit of darker environment.

But I could have more coziness here. Because in Nashville it's just already too cozy.

Robyn: Speaking of going from Nashville to la. Let's just talk about your journey. 

We'd love to hear everyone's story that comes on 

because there's a reason you are where you are right now and you are such a rare combination of lawyer and author, interior designer, feng shui practitioner, as you've said, and life coach.

So how did that all come together? To lead you, where you are,

Tisha: yeah. Thank you for acknowledging that. Yeah. It's been quite, [00:19:00] I think I'd be bored if I had not done all of those things. So I started out as an attorney, outta law school.

And that wasn't doing it for me, around that time. I met a friend who was interior design school and that for some reason sounded interesting to me in hindsight , my astrology chart explains all of it very well. It's all in there. I have a very splayed chart, so I have all these interests in so many different areas and so I've just been bouncing around my chart for for 20 years.

But the interior design led me into the fun shu. The interior design was a little bit too metal element for me. a lot of measurements you had to measure , that was before the apps too. And a lot of AutoCAD, very technical stuff. And I wanted just to go into people's homes and I wanted to have a sense of how a space should feel.

And Through a lot of personal exploration. I came into feng shui really from a house that needed a renovation. And as I was renovating this house, these correlating changes were taking place within my own body. physically, mentally, emotionally. And I realized how [00:20:00] integrated our energy is with our space and how our space can affect us positively or negatively.

Definit. Either way. And so that was what I learned from that time became my book, mind, body Home. And I correlate every aspect of the home to an aspect of ourselves. For example plumbing is the emotion. So when you suddenly have a. Plumbing leak out of nowhere. There's something emotionally that you've been suppressing that's now trying to get out.

So I take the house from the foundation all the way up to the roof and all its parts and have a correlation with the mind and with your mind body. So That whole thing led me. I was like, okay, I think feng shui is the closest that I can come to explaining this . And so I studied feng shui and became a feng shui practitioner.

And then I became a fun Shu teacher and most of my books are in the feng shui genre. And then a few years ago I just hit my ceiling with it and had to move on to a different part of my sociology chart, I wanted to help other people write books and work with media. And now being in LA in the tv film industry.

So I put my lawyer hat back [00:21:00] on had to take the California bar, which I think that when I met y'all, I think I was in the thick of all that. Yes, you were . And so I had to use neuroplasticity to relearn law and now I'm primarily doing entertainment law and loving helping other people with their projects and and getting good content out there.

Robyn: When it comes to the spirituality and spiritual part of yourself, was there a moment or a time where you were able to acknowledge. What was coming through to you? I think we don't always, Karen and I talk about this, we all have this inner voice and then we also have what you talked about with that water element, these inspired thoughts. , but not even in a lifetime. Not everybody acknowledges that. So how did you acknowledge that and start to feel, as you said, when you were in the home and know that there was something 

Tisha: else going on? Yeah. I've thought I was crazy a lot of times.

And moving into the feng shui was definitely one of those times because when I decided to go into tier design school, I was still practicing law. I went to interior design school at night. So it was a big undertaking. But what led me it wasn't [00:22:00] just a friend that I mentioned that was interior designers.

I was having these series of dreams. Of these incredible spaces unlike anything I'd ever seen in magazines. And I synchronistically met this person one random night at the bar and he was turning 21 and just this like wide eyed, full of life kid. And I was complaining about law.

And he said what do you dream about at night? I said, I dream about these interior design spaces. He goes, and that's what you should do. I dream about flying, so I'm gonna be a pilot. And I thought, oh my God. Like just that simple wisdom. And so that conversation inspired me to go to interior design school and it was such this divine, and I just felt that those moments that, you all have, when you know there's just like that click.

Then I got almost done . It was like, this is not what I wanna do. And so I was so low. I really went through a big, a doubting phase I just was for sure. this was meant to be. And now I'm here and I don't really like it. I did finish out my degree, but it turned into the fun shu and it was about the feng shui

so I started to realize that life [00:23:00] gives you these carrots to the next thing and the next thing, and following the next carrot, and those same doubts happened again When I decided to go into entertainment law, I'm in my early fifties and another career change in a pretty big way. That's the entertainment industry in LA is no joke.

 and so I didn't pass the bar the first time. The California then lowered the score during the pandemic and it was the score I had gotten before. So it was like, okay, I can do. And it was another time of what am I doing? Like seriously, I don't, why am I making life harder than it seems to need to be

But I'm now starting to see the fruits of these labors and just personal satisfaction and how I can help people. So I'm, still following that carrot. And so my point really goes to answer your question is these signs. I'm really good by signs and synchronicities.

I have my Oracle decks. I have my wife is a psychic medium. I'm blessed with a lot of ability to whether signs that come organically or manufactured . And using my intuition, I guess is what I'm saying, at the end of the day, it's my intuition. And when I don't wanna do [00:24:00] something, I know that I don't wanna do it and I won't do it.

Karen: Oh wow. That's so great. And I love what you said at the beginnings. I think when anybody questions whether or not they're crazy, they're on the right track. , 

Tisha: right? It's crazy to do this 

Karen: because something is pushing you in that direction. And we talk about that all the time. How fun is it that we do have all these different paths and we do have these little.

Stretches of doing something that's gonna lead us into something else. Because we've always learned from anybody we've talked to, it's always on purpose because in some shape or form, you use those experiences to build on the 

Tisha: next thing. Yeah. And I think that's so much where we are right now as a collective.

And also why I wanted to bring this book out now is because, I think we are definitely the least in the conscious community of this kind of 3.0. There's, it's no coincidence that Web 3.0 is on the, we're on the precipice of that because we're all putting together all of our talents and skills that we've learned and use thus far to create something to up level, to something.

And we need that [00:25:00] new now we're ready for it because we're done with doing things the way that we've been doing them. And so we are building something new. And it's similar to like the trinity of the, two things coming to, to create the third and the 3.0, however you wanna look at it.

And I feel like that's where we are right now in Consci. And so I want this book to help people create that up-leveling experience for themselves. And because this is what we need now more than. I think we need all of your books.

 I, I'm getting all of 

them 

Karen: I just think we're all looking for ways to better understand ourselves and each other, and I just love the fact that there's this ancient wisdom that we can tap into that is of the earth, that is of the planet of which we're all talking about anyway, so it's on so many different levels.

This book can speak to people down to where you're, what you're wearing. I just love that element as well that you brought in. Is there another part that talks about, you mentioned color earlier, and I just wondered, [00:26:00] are the elements also attached to specific colors as well? 

Tisha: Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I can go through 'em really quick.

And they are in the book as well, so water is associated with black. The color black or dark tones. Which is surprising, by 

Robyn: the way. Can I just say that I'm surprised by that for some reason. Yeah, 

Tisha: me too. Yeah. You'd think blue. Blue is more of a western minded association with water.

Yeah. But water in traditional Chinese medicine is actually black. And the way I think of it is You've ever been to the ocean at night and it looks black but you can see the moonlight shimmering on the water doesn't have to be the ocean. It could be body of water. That's the water element.

And it's essential. The moon is actually a water element symbolically speaking, whereas the sun would be the fire element. And so that And if you throw that scene in the winter time, then it's like as watery as you can get. The elements also relate to the seasons of the year.

So water is that winter when there's no leaves on the tree. It's just like when the seeds are first planted, the ideas, the seeds are first planted. You don't have the the the [00:27:00] everything's been cleared out. And so then you move into spring, which is the first buds, the first tangible visible expression of energy.

That's the first yang energy, and that's the wood phase. And so green is the color associated with the wood phase. Any, each shade of green. And then we move into summer fire and everything's at its fullest expression of energy. And so red and bright colors would be the fire element.

And then as we start to move into autumn particularly the autumn equinox, we hit the earth element phase. And that would be earth tone. Think of anything in like in the southwest, Browns burnt yellows, burnt oranges. And then we move into metal and that's when the energy starts to withdraw.

We start to move into those colder the leaves start falling off the trees. We've gotten as much energy as we can and now it starts to drop off. And those colors are definitely metallics, but also white and gray and pastels to a certain extreme cuz the pigment starts to dilute from. So yeah, that completes the cycle.

So Karen, you're wearing water and metal and then [00:28:00] Robyn has the animal print, which is a symbolic of the fire element. And it's 

Robyn: funny cuz I consciously chose that today, , 

Tisha: I was feeling the fire . Nice. 

Karen: I love this idea that you can pull, even if you, maybe in a season, right?

You can pull from this to compliment the season or not. For me, in the winter, I get. Sad, I get those winter blues, so maybe pulling in some of the color from the summer that are bright and just, it's a natural thing you do anyway, but it's almost like you understand it better that way.

I love all this. It's almost like a little system that you can use for yourself no matter, even if you're changing a venue and you're living somewhere else, if. Working with people relationship wise, either in your family or for work or if you wanna just decorate a room to compliment and augment all of your different elements, so 

Tisha: much to think about in, Yep.

You got it. You summed that up all very well. . 

Robyn: . And I think a lot of people, especially now because. . There are a lot of people working from home now, whether it's [00:29:00] full-time or part-time. If they go in the office a few days a week and then they have a home office. I think having this understanding, especially in that particular space and how to make it work best for them will be so exactly.

Tisha: That's exactly another reason why I knew this book was for now I knew people were gonna be working from home on an exponential level. And whether you employed or self-employed working from home , can be very isolating too. And you have to be more dependent on your own inner resources more than ever for your own inner leader, your own inner guru and so forth.

Robyn: Yeah. And I find too, I think I was called to wear this today, especially because sometimes when you are doing so much via Zoom, , to your point of being isolated, you have to actually bring extra energy. Yep. To the table. it takes more sometimes cuz you aren't feeding off that in person energy to bring that and have express that virtually.

I found it takes more energy. So the fire helps. But now I'm gonna definitely buy the book first of all, Karen and I need to do our [00:30:00] quiz for each other, and our collaboration, and set ourselves up to be more fulfilled, and 

Tisha: yeah. Robyn's you definitely lead with the fire. Y'all both have a little bit, obviously we all have all five, but Robyn, you're dominant in fire. Karen is dominant in wooden metal. I'm not, can't tell which one is comes first place. Probably wood and then metal. And and then y'all both are very connected to the water, so probably Earth is where y'all as a collaboration could fill in some.

Yeah. your collaboration is a missing element, . Yeah, 

Robyn: I think that's true. And I look around and I have the same plant that Karen has, But outside of that, I honestly have no earth colors. 

Karen: And you had said earlier that Earth is about like rest, mother 

Tisha: gather and work. So grounding. Yeah. Yeah. 

Karen: Not doing that. Like always being on the run, always working, being 

Tisha: busy. If you think about, again, you can always look to nature for the elements and just like gardening 1 0 1, a tree, which is a wood element, can only grow.

Prosper as much as it's earth roots are, there's a proportion of the tree, whatever, leaves or whatever, [00:31:00] is the same proportion as the roots, which is the earth. So without a good grounding, the tree can only grow so well. So that's something I personally have to always keep in mind when I'm speeding to the next project.

And I'm always forward thinking and always moving to the next thing and starting new projects. But if you don't have that earth then a little storm is gonna take that tree down. 

Robyn: So much 

Karen: ancient wisdom that's always been there, right? , we always marvel how 

Tisha: somebody didn't teach us this in school or Right.

And 

Robyn: I love the way that you're translating it for people. Yeah. Not everybody has that gift of being able to take that ancient wisdom and translate it so that it can. Today. , in 2022. So thank you for doing that. and thank you for sharing your journey. I feel like other people need to hear that you can, you went down several different tracks and each time you went down the different tracks, you were like, this isn't exactly it.

And , honestly, I feel like Karen and I needed to hear that today because we all sometimes get to a certain point like, , why am I here? Should I be here? Where is that [00:32:00] next carrot? you know that the next little sign. We all needed. We needed to hear that today and look where it's led you.

Cuz all of these, everything that you've done is built upon itself, to lead to this latest book to lead to where you are right now and who knows what'll be in another 10 years, but , 

Tisha: that's the journey actually. My ultimate career goal is actually to be a fiction writer a legal thriller novelist.

So that's gonna be my next career. Oh, 

Karen: I can't think of a great plot out of being an entertainment lawyer. , 

Tisha: yes, . 

Karen: Maybe it has a side gig. Designing. 

Robyn: You 

Tisha: Could cover a lot 

Robyn: of grounds 

Karen: yes. Oh, this so fun. I feel like I've learned so much and I'm now inspired to really dig into your book even more and 

Robyn: learn even more so too, and really enter your other books as well, because I really think feng shui is something that we've touched upon both in our lives and on the podcast, but we haven't really.

Dug into it and I think we need to because it's the energy of your environment, and so we believe in energy and how, what we bring to the [00:33:00] table, what is around us, so to have better tools and resources. . . 

Tisha: Yeah. The home is the one space, really the only space you have any control over besides your body, your physical body.

It's like a second skin. And so like you said, these tools that are right under our nose and it's the one like today I could Rearrange my office or declutter it and the energy that, that shifts is probably the best thing I could do all day. Exactly. That's right. That's right. Yeah.

Robyn: Yes. It's your office, your closet, Yes. I mean, mean, Cause then you're inviting new energy in. Yeah, I know. My 

Karen: mom always used to say, always pay attention to your basement and to your attic, because it's that unseen clutter that's above and below everything else could look great, but if you've got everything's 

Tisha: stuffed that's right into 

Karen: your basement and your attic it does affect that as well.

Yeah and you feel it, don't you? you feel your space when it's organized. There's just, there's definitely an energetic 

Tisha: difference. That's, no, your mom's completely correct. The basement's, the subconscious. So you're just pushing things into subconscious. See, we need your first book, , so we need [00:34:00] that too.

Karen: How beautifully they all work together. They definitely compliment each other. 

Tisha: So thank you. thank you so much. Thank y'all for being so receptive to this information and help reflect it back for other people and your interpretations. And it was really helpful to this, to the process of being an author and getting our messages out and yeah we're grateful.

You feel 

Robyn: definitely divinely connected to you and so we're here to support one another. As we both move forward into wherever 

Tisha: our next chapters take us. Yes. . 

Robyn: Thank you to that carrot. 

 You can find out more about Tisha and her new book, missing Element, hidden strength@tishamorris.com.

That's t i s h A m o r r i s.com. You can even take the quiz we talked about there. Plus you can find out more about her other books as well. You can also follow her at Tisha l Morris on Instagram, and we'll have all of her other social handles in our show notes.

Introduction
Taoism + Your Untapped Potential