In life there are lots of real reasons to grieve, to feel sad, to get mad or to feel resentful. The death of a loved one, the lack of work, being disregarded in your job or personal life, the continuing challenges of this material world that we live in, not feeling fulfilled, dysfunctional relationships, broken relationships, the loss of a pet… the list is nearly endless.
A Look At Sadness, Grieving
What makes the problem even more difficult is that in the modern society we are often under so much stress that the emotion isn’t given permission to surface or port correctly, which may result in other hard feelings and stronger feelings of sadness, grief, anger etc. and it’s a self perpetuating situation.
Western Medicine
If you’re sad or grieving and you reside in a “western civilised country” then you might consider moving to a doctor. Friends and household could be supportive, but while the emotion/s persists you and your service team may feel there’s no better option. In many situations, depending on how the patient expresses these feelings, the physician may choose to prescribe anti-depressants to assist them.
There might be some instances in which a temporary measure that this can seem to help, and sadly many other instances where it’s the slippery slope into a dependency on prescription medication.
Of class there are also physicians who might recommend counselling or some kind of talk therapy, to provide the patient the chance to manage and vent the emotion/s.
Regardless of this route that’s selected, Western medication doesn’t recognise that certain emotions are connected to specific organs, and can consequently have either a harmful effect or a balancing effect, based on the degree and kind of emotion experienced.
Traditional Chinese Medicine
However traditional Chinese medication does recognise the connection between organs and emotions, and it is an integral facet of how both traditional Chinese acupuncturists and herbalists practice.
Even if you’ve got no interest in visiting a traditional Chinese medical practitioner, I’ve discovered that by observing changes in general wellbeing, when you know the inter-relationships between organs and emotions, can give some useful indications of how to start re-balancing these imbalances.
For instance, doing something creative that you like can provide you these sort of signals. Walking in character can also do the same, as can reading something enriching. These are just a small number of examples of possibly balancing activities. Please note that although these are useful, it would be highly suggested to visit a fantastic practitioner who can help you re-balance thoroughly.
Chinese Medicine and emotions
In conventional Chinese Medicine there are 7 emotions that are: Joy, fear, grief, anger, fright, anxiety, pensiveness. Each of these is related to another organ or organs. Let’s look very briefly at what these are.
- Joy is linked to the heart. In traditional Chinese medicine the emotion of pleasure refers to an agitated overexcited state.
- Fear or sensed fear is connected to the kidneys.
- Grief has a direct link to the lungs and if it moves the point of regular initial grief and divides into chronic grief, then it might weaken the lungs.
- Anger which encircles anger as we understand it, in addition to bitterness, irritability and frustration is related to the liver.
- Fright is a sudden encounter that will initially affect the heart but over time as the fright turns right to a conscious fear, then it will also affect the kidneys.
- Anxiety is linked to the lungs.
- Pensiveness in TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) describes more than thinking or too much mental stimulation, which is related to the spleen.
These brief snippets barely touch on the connections, which are rather intricate and encompass the five elements (wood, earth, fire, metal and water). However my purpose is to introduce the field at this moment, and to analyze it with respect to the difficult feelings of sadness and despair, which can be illustrated in the following case study.
Grief, Sadness, Stress, Anger And Resentment
An individual was suffering with lower stomach pain for 3 weeks, which got worse after drinking cold beverages or eating fatty food. A doctor she’d attended had prescribed her medication which assaulted the symptoms but not the reason, after being unable to detect any physical signs of infection, cancer, inflammation or other physiological condition.
However upon attending to a Cinese Medicine Center, it became evident that her symptoms were really her friends and were desperately trying to tell her something important. Was ignoring the despair of losing a long term friend, which was combined with five decades of anxiety of almost constant movement and professional pressure.
A tricky routine, eating habits which weren’t conducive to a balanced lifestyle and health, wed with despair, sadness, anger and resentment were brought back into balance by a combined holistic approach, which included a course of acupuncture, herbal remedies, meditation, qi gong, and improved eating and dietary habits.
This woman was assisted to re-balance, in addition to understanding the messages that her symptoms were providing and getting involved in clinics which gave her back more responsibility over her own health.
Grief and sadness are recognised in Chinese medication to weaken the normal energy flow (qi) of the lungs in addition to the large intestines.
Anger and bitterness (a sort of anger) are known to make blockages of energy (qi) and blood from the liver and gallbladder channels. In flip this could lead to pain, mood swings, indigestion, insomnia and dysmenorrhea.
Even if you are feeling sceptical about trying TCM, remember it has, and continues to help millions of individuals deal with the origin of their imbalances and not simply the symptoms. It is a excellent way to keep a healthy body, mind and soul. It can help you understand and manage your emotions before they become chronic, and will help you re-discover pieces of yourself that became drowned in pools of stress and chronic emotions.
If you’ve been feeling some of these feelings, it can be an excellent relief to manage them with the assistance of a great practitioner.
