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TRAINING SUCCESSFUL PRACTITIONERS

Oriental Medicine and the Emotions

The Chinese have known for thousands of years that our emotions impact the state of our health. In Chinese medicine emotions are seen as energy passing through the meridians and when allowed to flow freely and unconstrained, we stay in balance.

In Chinese medicine there are five major yin organs, the liver, heart, spleen, lungs and kidney. Each organ is associated with an emotion, the liver – anger, the heart- joy, the spleen- worry, the kidney- fear, the lungs- sorrow or grief.  Excess of any of these emotions can affect the related organ. Suppression of any of these emotions can also affect the organ. It is a circular process in that if the organ is weak it can increase the related emotion.

Have a look at the different patterns below and see if you can relate to any of these energetic imbalances. The good news is that we can take steps to change these patterns and feel strong emotionally.

Liver qi stagnation: If you find yourself sighing frequently, feeling irritable and frustrated or feeling prone to temper outbursts it may be that energetically your liver energy has stagnated. One of the main causes for this is repressed emotion, holding in or onto too many feelings. Accompanying physical symptoms can include belching, burping, acid regurgitation, sour taste in the mouth. If this picture sounds familiar there are some easy steps to take. The liver needs movement, emotion needs expression, so get out and exercise, breathe deeply out in fresh air, express your feelings, try writing a journal or pound a pillow. Green is the healing colour for the liver, so walk in beautiful greenery and eat lots of green foods.

Spleen qi deficiency: Do you sometimes find yourself excessively ruminant, prone to worry? The spleen energy rules digestion and is negatively affected by worry. Too much worry injures the spleen and a weakened spleen energy leaves us more prone to worry. Accompanying physical symptoms may include feeling really tired especially after eating, loose bowel movements, bloating or weight gain which is difficult to loose especially around the middle.

If you think this applies to you make this a summer to support your spleen. Decide to deal with worries differently, adopt new coping mechanisms. Build your resistance to worry by doing what makes your heart sing. Certain foods weaken spleen energy, wheat, dairy, coffee, so reduce these and eat smaller amounts more often, and try not to eat late at night.

Kidney yin deficiency. Do you often feel that you are running on empty, using your reserve tank rather than energy that is easily available to you? Do you often ignore the red light on your dashboard that tells you are doing too much? Does this sometimes leave you feeling overwhelmed and fearful? You might have other symptoms like flushed cheeks, sweating at night, feeling thirsty, lower back pain. This all points to kidney yin deficiency. It is often a sign of overwork and indicates a need for more rest and relaxation to strengthen the kidney energy. Have regular early nights, reduce your workload, find a good work life balance. Connect with water and earth by swimming and walking on the grass in your bare feet, yoga and meditation all help to increase kidney energy. Foods that strengthen the kidney are pulses and mineral rich foods such as seaweeds.

Heart yin deficiency: If you are feeling anxious or panicky, if you are prone to sleep disturbance or are having vivid dreams, if you are feeling disconnected from friendships or past-times that you usually enjoy, you may have heart- yin deficiency. If your face is flushing easily and you feel worse after alcohol or spicy food, if you are getting palpitations and have recently had emotional stress, then you may have heart-yin deficiency. It is important to take time out to nourish this yin energy, you may need more rest, you may need to retreat a little in order to renew. Increase activities that calm and nourish you, be good to yourself, surround yourself with colours and landscapes that nurture. Use deep breathing, yoga, visualisation or meditation. Avoid too much fire in the diet by reducing spicy foods, alcohol and sugar. Increase cooling foods such as green vegetables and beetroot.

Our bodies often give us clues as to what we need to do to rebalance, make this a summer where you listen to your body’s inner wisdom and enjoy a wonderful summer!

Deirdre CourtneyArticle supplied by Deirdre Courtney, (M.A), Head of Acupuncture Department, CNM.

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