As acupuncturists, we sit with our clients and talk with them about their emotions.  Emotions are an important part of the intake process for Traditional Chinese Medicine.  Emotions affect our physical health and physical health affects our emotional well-being.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine – most organ systems have an emotion associated with them.  When someone is angry or irritable, we think of the Liver and how to work to balance the flow of Liver Qi.  Fear is associated with the Kidneys, Grief, the Lungs, Heart – joy,  and the emotion associated with the Spleen is worry.  Since we so often experience many emotions, one can speculate the effect the emotions have on our health.

I want to make a pitch for making friends with our emotions. So often, we try to push our feelings away. This may be done through drugs and alcohol, food and other addictions, exercise or medications. An informal industry has been developed in order to support us in NOT FEELING.  What this ultimately does is add an additional layer to our pain and suffering. We still feel the emotions we don’t want to feel and we self medicate ourselves to get away from the feelings we still feel! Doesn’t make sense! [Read more…]