The executive who cannot stop thinking is not disciplined. They are depleted. There is an important distinction, and the failure to make it leads to a persistent misdiagnosis of one of the most common performance problems in senior leadership: the mind that keeps running when it should be resting, that processes and reprocesses the same information without reaching resolution, that wakes at 2am already mid-thought on a problem that has not moved in twelve hours of conscious effort.

Modern psychology labels this overthinking or rumination and identifies it as a risk factor for anxiety, depression, and impaired decision quality. What it does not typically offer is a physiological account of why it happens or a physiological pathway for addressing it. Traditional Chinese Medicine does both, through its understanding of the Earth element and the spleen organ network, in ways that are both practically useful and, on closer examination, strikingly congruent with what contemporary research on cognitive fatigue and the gut-brain axis is beginning to demonstrate.

The Earth Element and the Spleen in TCM

In the Five Element framework of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Earth element governs the center, the season of late summer, the flavor of sweetness, and the organ pair of the spleen and stomach. The spleen, in TCM understanding, is responsible for the structural shift and transportation of nutrients and fluids throughout the body, and for the “raising of the clear Qi” to the head, which in physiological terms supports clear, alert thinking. When the spleen is functioning optimally, digestion is efficient, energy is stable, and the mind is clear and focused. When the spleen is weakened or deficient, the structural shift function fails, dampness accumulates in the system, and the clear Qi cannot rise adequately to support brain function (Maciocia, G., The Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 3rd ed., 2015).

The emotion most directly associated with the Earth element in TCM theory is si, often translated as “pensiveness” or “excessive thinking.” This is not merely a loose conceptual association. In TCM clinical observation accumulated over millennia, the relationship between excessive mental rumination and spleen weakness is direct and bidirectional: overthinking weakens the spleen, and spleen deficiency produces a tendency toward excessive mental activity that is difficult to resolve through willpower alone. The person whose spleen Qi is depleted experiences their mind as “sticky,” returning repeatedly to the same problems without resolution, unable to fully let go of worries even when the rational analysis has already been completed.

For the executive whose work involves continuous high-volume cognitive processing, the risk of spleen depletion is significant. The spleen, in TCM theory, governs not only the digestion of food but the digestion of information and experience. An executive who is continuously processing complex information, making high-stakes decisions, and holding multiple organizational narratives simultaneously is making enormous demands on their Earth element, and the signs of deficiency, which include mental fog, difficulty concentrating, circular thinking, and a particular quality of low-grade worry that does not respond to logical reassurance, are often attributed to stress or inadequate sleep rather than to the physiological root that TCM identifies.

The Gut-Brain Axis: Western Validation of an Ancient Insight

The TCM account of the spleen’s role in cognition is not without parallel in contemporary research. The emerging science of the gut-brain axis, the bidirectional communication network between the gastrointestinal system and the central nervous system via the vagus nerve, the enteric nervous system, and the immune system, has produced findings that align closely with the TCM model in ways that would have been considered implausible a decade ago.

The enteric nervous system, sometimes called the “second brain,” contains approximately 500 million neurons and produces significant quantities of the neurotransmitters most associated with mood and cognition, including approximately 95 percent of the body’s serotonin. Research by Cryan and Dinan, gut-brain axis research established that the gut microbiome communicates continuously with the central nervous system, influencing mood, anxiety levels, and cognitive function through multiple pathways including vagal afferents, immune signaling, and the production of neuroactive metabolites (Cryan, J. F., & Dinan, T. G., “Mind-Altering Microorganisms: The Impact of the Gut Microbiota on Brain and Behaviour,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13(10), 701–712, 2012).

A weakened spleen in TCM terms corresponds, at least in part, to a disrupted gut ecology: poor digestive efficiency, microbiome imbalance, and the systemic inflammation that arises from compromised gut barrier function. Each of these has documented effects on the same cognitive and mood functions that TCM associates with spleen deficiency, including reduced cognitive flexibility, increased rumination, and impaired working memory. The executive who supports their digestive health through appropriate diet, stress management, and targeted supplementation is not merely taking care of their gut. They are taking care of their brain.

The Kabbalistic Dimension: Malkhut and Grounded Presence

The Kabbalistic parallel to the Earth element and its grounding, stabilizing function is the sefirah of Malkhut: the tenth and lowest sefirah on the Tree of Life, the point at which all the higher energies of the system become actualized in the physical world. Malkhut is often described as the quality of being fully present in the here and now, rooted in the actual rather than absorbed in the abstract. The Chida wrote in Devash LePi that the person who has genuinely developed Malkhut does not scatter their attention across what was or what might be but is fully engaged with what is, in this moment, in this situation (Devash LePi, Mem, 5). This is, in psychological language, the opposite of rumination: not an absence of thought but a presence to reality that is fuller and more stable than the anxious cycling of the overthinking mind.

The Zohar teaches that Malkhut is the foundation of all genuine action in the world, because it is the sefirah that connects the inner life to external reality (Zohar, Vayakhel, 210a). Without adequate Malkhut development, the leader’s considerable inner life, their insights, intentions, and visions, cannot land effectively in the world. They remain suspended in abstraction, cycling through possibilities without becoming concrete decisions and actions. This is precisely the functional state of the executive with depleted Earth element energy: lots of cognitive activity, diminished practical effectiveness.

Practical Protocols for Earth Element Support

The restoration of Earth element balance and spleen health involves dietary, lifestyle, and inner-work dimensions that together address the problem at its root rather than merely managing its symptoms.

Dietary support for the spleen in TCM centers on warm, cooked, easy-to-digest foods: soups, stews, root vegetables, whole grains such as oats and millet, and lightly cooked rather than raw vegetables. The TCM spleen is weakened by cold foods and drinks, excessive raw food, damp-forming foods (dairy, refined sugar, alcohol, greasy food), and irregular eating patterns. For the executive who routinely skips breakfast, eats cold salads at a desk, and relies on sugar and caffeine to manage energy fluctuations, this dietary picture is precisely the pattern that TCM identifies as most depleting to the spleen system. The adjustment required is not radical but it is specific.

Research by Jacka, Deakin University established a clear relationship between dietary quality and mental health outcomes, including specifically the kind of rumination and worry that characterizes depleted Earth element. Her SMILES trial, a randomized controlled trial of a Mediterranean-style dietary intervention for depression, found that dietary improvement produced significant reductions in depressive symptoms over twelve weeks, with effect sizes comparable to those of psychological interventions (Jacka, F. N., et al., “A Randomised Controlled Trial of Dietary Improvement for Adults with Major Depression,” BMC Medicine, 15, 23, 2017). The mechanism operates precisely through the gut-brain axis: improved dietary quality supports a healthier microbiome, which supports improved mood and cognitive regulation.

The inner-work dimension of Earth element balance involves the cultivation of what TCM calls “centered presence,” and what contemplative traditions across cultures describe as mindfulness or presence to the present moment. Mindfulness-based stress reduction research by Kabat-Zinn, MBSR research demonstrated that an eight-week MBSR program significantly reduced rumination and anxiety in participants with clinical anxiety, with effects maintained at three-month follow-up (Kabat-Zinn, J., et al., “Effectiveness of a Meditation-Based Stress Reduction Program in the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders,” American Journal of Psychiatry, 149(7), 936–943, 1992). For the executive, the consistent practice of even ten to fifteen minutes of seated, breath-focused meditation produces measurable reductions in the circular thinking that depletes both cognitive performance and Earth element vitality.

From Overthinking to Clear Action

The shift from the overthinking mode to clear, grounded action does not come from trying harder to think more clearly. It comes from addressing the physiological substrate, the spleen and Earth element vitality, the gut ecology, the nervous system regulation, that clear thinking requires. The executive who addresses their Earth element depletion through the integrated approach described here typically notices changes on several dimensions simultaneously: the quality of mental activity becomes less circular and more directional, decision-making feels less effortful, sleep improves because the mind is less sticky at bedtime, and the sense of being overwhelmed by the volume of cognitive demands gradually lifts.

These are not separate benefits. They are different expressions of the same underlying restoration: the return of the system to the balanced, functional state from which the Earth element, in all its stabilizing, grounding, centering power, allows clear seeing, clean deciding, and effective acting in the world.

References

• Maciocia, G. (2015). The Foundations of Chinese Medicine (3rd ed.). Churchill Livingstone.
• Cryan, J. F., & Dinan, T. G. (2012). Mind-altering microorganisms: The impact of the gut microbiota on brain and behaviour. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13(10), 701–712.
• Jacka, F. N., et al. (2017). A randomised controlled trial of dietary improvement for adults with major depression. BMC Medicine, 15, 23.
• Kabat-Zinn, J., et al. (1992). Effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program in the treatment of anxiety disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 149(7), 936–943.
• Chida (Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai), Devash LePi, Mem, 5.
• Zohar, Vayakhel, 210a.