I have had a lot of fun over the past couple of months creating week-long Instagram posts sharing my view of Chinese herbs that are also foods we eat every day, the Chinese organ systems, Chinese herbs you might see around your neighborhood, the seasons, and the elements. This week I wanted to bring my focus back to my practice and something I feel is very important—the mind-body connection. This leads me to try to talk about something a little more complicated that I felt needed more of an explanation and introduction than I could offer via Instagram—hence, this post!
We’re going to spend a week focused on just 5 emotions (of course there are really a million) and how they affect the movement of qi (energy, basically) in our bodies. Each emotion has classically been assigned an organ and an element, and there are lines of text expressing how an excess of each emotion can make the qi move in particular ways. None of that comes from my imagination. What I want to offer is a bridge between the poetry of Chinese medicine and the beginning of an understanding I hope we can all share regarding how our feelings can create physical sensations in our bodies.
Each emotion has a positive and negative side, and I hope to highlight both of those every day. Please comment with any thoughts these posts bring up for you. I’d love to hear your experience with the emotions!
Have you ever gotten angry and felt your face getting red? How about in cartoons when a character gets so mad the top of their head spouts steam? Those are examples of Anger making the qi ascend!
Anger is associated with the Wood element. The Yin Wood organ Liver often gets blamed when a person is irritable or easily angered, as the Liver is supposed to moderate and organize the up and outward motion.
We need all movements in moderation, and when one is emphasized over the others imbalance is the result. Too much going up and out can be a problem when it leads to things like headache, red eyes, reflux, even possible hypertension. Weakness below can show up as a contrast to tension and extra energy up above in the body.
There is a good side to Anger. The Yang Wood organ Gallbladder is responsible for giving us the "Gall" to stand UP for ourselves when we need to.
Joy doesn't sound bad, does it? Think about a toddler who eats way too much cake and has too much fun at her birthday party. Meltdown, right? Joy, or perhaps you can call it Mania, makes the qi chaotic.
Joy is the emotion that affects the Heart, which is where the spirit is housed. When the Heart is affected sleep can be disturbed and connections with other people can be difficult. The element of the Heart is Fire, and with excess Joy that Fire can flare unchecked.
I don't think I have to enumerate the ways Joy can be a great thing in proper amounts. 😊
Sadness is said to make the qi “dissipate” or sometimes I’ve read “scatter.” Sadness, or Grief, most affects the Lung. For the qi of the chest to be scattered or dissipated means we’re losing direction entirely, when qi should be moving up, down, out, and in.
Those heavy sighs and even a good cry can be so therapeutic. But when weeping takes over your life or you can't get yourself out of those depths, it might be hard for your qi to return to its natural movements in all directions.
I'm sure you've heard or even said "My stomach is in knots" when someone is worried. What about "My Spleen is in knots"? No?
Worry causes the qi to knot, and the Spleen (and its yang paired organ the Stomach) is most affected by those knots of Worry. To me, this helps explain why we can get a stomach ache, butterflies, or other GI complaints when we are ruminating (another digestive word) on our thoughts.
It's important to properly digest things that happen to us, to internalize and learn from mistakes, and grow from all of our experiences. But when we become overly caught up in turning certain thoughts over and over, we can affect our qi dynamic. Sometimes we can get ourselves out of this cycle and sometimes we need a little nudge. This type of imbalance is one I am especially interested in addressing through my work with acupuncture and herbal medicine.
Have you ever felt a "sinking feeling" and was it related to fear? Fear makes the qi descend. This makes me think of a couple of different things. Maybe the qi is retreating to its root (at the Kidneys, the Water organ affected by Fear). This also makes me think of the unfortunate but true trope of losing control of one's Bladder (the Kidney's paired organ) when frightened.
Fear is important because without it we might walk into situations unprepared to deal with danger. It can protect us from dangerous situations. However, if we let Fear take over our actions we might never go out at all.