Emotional Expression as a Somatic Symptom

Emotional Expression as a Somatic Symptom

What is emotion? This is a topic that is constantly debated, updated and researched continuously, but for the most part is defined as ‘A complex reaction pattern, involving experiential, behavioural and physiological elements. They are made up of 3 components, a subjective experience, a physiological response and a behavioural expressive response’.  If that was not complex enough, there is also definitions to ensure that feelings and moods are not confused with emotions. For example, a feeling may arise from an emotional experience and may be influenced by memories, beliefs, and other factors. A mood is described as a short-lived emotional state, usually of low intensity. Mood differs from emotions because they lack stimuli and may not have a clear starting point. An insult can trigger the emotion of anger while and angry mood may arise without apparent cause. This is what I want to focus on. The ‘Without Apparent Cause’.

Within the Traditional Chinese Medicine framework, each organ within the body has an emotion associated to it. This emotion when manifesting can indicate disharmony within that organ, and vice versa, an emotion can cause disharmony to the organ. Let’s have a look at the emotions and organs they relate to.

• Liver – Anger
• Heart – Joy
• Spleen – Pensiveness (The Spleen is a considered a part of the digestive system)
• Lung – Grief
• Kidney – Fear

It may not surprise you that the liver has the emotion of anger, or the heart joy. How many sayings can you think of that have emotions linked to organs?

What does all this mean exactly? If our organs are “out of balance”, the emotions associated to them tend to be more prominent. “The Mood” if you will. Often after a death of a loved one, some people may suffer from lung infections or have increased asthma attacks. What this means is that the organ concerned is struggling (as diagnosed by TCM). These emotions affect the way our Qi moves in our body. Grief consumes Qi, Fear disperses Qi, Anger raises Qi, Joy slows Qi and Worry Stagnates Qi. These movements become a problem if they are contradictory to the normal movement of that QI. The Liver for example is responsible for the smooth flow of Qi within the body, and anger can raise Qi, and push that QI upwards towards the head. Red face, raised blood pressure, boiling point! Do you begin to see the picture? Now, add to that the Seasons. Each organ has a season, Liver is Spring, Heart is Summer, Spleen is Late Summer, Lung is Autumn and Kidney is Winter.

Let us look at the Liver. Anger is the emotion and Spring is the season. The liver also represents movement and growth, such is the season of spring where everything begins to regenerate after the long sleep of winter. This movement needs to happen smoothly and freely, if not we see turbulence and trouble. So basically, if you have patterns of disharmony associated to your liver, you will tend to anger quickly. (This is only one of the potential symptoms).

What do we need to do? We need to eat right. We need to get out and move around. Spring is about movement and growth. Use this time to shake of the stagnation and sedentary season of winter. If you are struggling with the frustration and anger, perhaps it is time to get some treatment. We use acupuncture to smooth that liver qi. The liver needs your love this spring and after the year we have had, the worry, the isolation, the fear, Imagine the patterns of disharmony. Let’s get things back to a state of harmony. If you have any concerns or questions, speak with your qualified practitioner, it never hurts to ask.