What is temperament?

Temperament is a way of categorizing people based on the characteristics of their body / mind / psyche. The idea is that people generally fall into four main categories: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic. It’s like the OG Meyers-Briggs or psychological Big 5, but it also incorporates the physical body and ideas about staying healthy.

Roots of temperament

Most traditional societies base their way of looking at matter, people and stuff in general based on polarities, like hot / cold, wet / dry, male / female, good / bad, yin / yang, etc. The ancients in Western civilization though that matter was fundamentally made of four elements: earth, air, water and fire.

Each element has a mix of each polarity.

• Earth is cold and dry and is feminine.

• Water is cold and wet and is feminine.

• Fire is hot and dry and is masculine.

• Air is hot and wet and is masculine.

Earth people, or melancholics, are thoughtful, tall and skinny, like sweets, and have a tendency to depression.

Water people, or phelgmatics, are emotional, short and fleshy, like cold and dairy foods, and have a tendency to inaction.

Fire people, or cholerics, are action oriented, typically solid frames, like spicy and hearty foods, and have a tendency to anger.

Air people, or sanguines, are social butterflies, have pleasing bodies, like rich foods, and have a tendency to superficiality.

Curious about your temperament? Grab your Balanced Elements temperament report and learn more!