The Seven Emotional Factors
During my training, I learned about the Zang Fu organs. The Zang Fu organ theory covers all organs in the human body. There are five Zang organs and six Fu organs. Zang organs include the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and spleen. While Fu organs include the gallbladder, large intestine, small intestine, urinary bladder, and the san jiao (the triple system). There are seven emotional factors that are the main pathogenic factors of endogenous diseases. In short, our emotions cause serious damage to our organs, and these emotions originate from within.
The seven (7) distinguishing emotions, which are the major internal causes of illness are anger (depression), fear (terror), shock (fright), Joy (excitement, love), pensiveness (concentration), worry, and sadness (grief, melancholy).
How does this tie in with my experience?
These emotions when experienced in an overpowering, uncontrollable way, can cause injuries to the internal organs, and in consequence, lead to disease. As I was surfing the web today, I saw variations of this image. I was a bit surprised that so many people were sharing it. It did bring me back to my oriental medicine (OM) theory learnings as well as my synergistic massage experience.
From OM theory, each organ has an associated emotion that causes the flow and circulation of qi and blood to be disturbed. In regards to Synergistic Massage, There are back “shu” points that align with the physical organs of the body. I should say that I feel I am getting technical, and way ahead of myself, so be patient with me as I am very excited about this topic.
When performing a synergistic massage, I am able to find a lot about what may be going on with a person when working on their back. There is a meridian channel (acupressure channel) that allows me to find out about where issues may be brewing or lingering as well as any emotions a person may be going through.
This image aligns perfectly with what I have learned and experienced as a massage therapist. Sharing the image is fine, and may awaken some awareness to watch our emotions. However, I think it is good to know the theory(ies) behind this image. What I am sharing is just one theory that I learned. You should do your own research because this is how we grow.
Anger
When we consider the emotional factor “anger” we should also include its associated emotions such as resentment, irritability, repressed anger, frustration, rage, depression, and animosity. There are any number of factors that can initiate us having these emotions. When considering how they affect our organs, we should remember that their effects are most damaging when experienced with intensity. As stated earlier, when any of the seven emotions are experienced in an overpowering, uncontrollable way, can cause injuries to the internal organs, and in consequence, lead to disease.
Some of the symptoms that are most felt when experienced prolonged anger include pain in the head and neck regions They may manifest as:
- headache
- tinnitus
- dizziness
- Blurry vision
- Raised blood pressure
- Stroke
- Painful menstruation, PMS
- Shortness of breath
- red blotches on the front of the neck
- red face
- thirst
- red tongue
The most common symptom is headache. The main organ that is affected by anger is the liver. However, Anger also often affects the Spleen and Stomach. It is believed that the Spleen and Stomach organs are affected because the liver qi is stagnant, and it begins invading the Stomach and Spleen.
Summary
I hope that this gave a little more about how anger affects the liver, or the link of emotions to the major organs. The first thing that any of us can do when we experience anger is to be aware of our emotions, and acknowledge them. Regular self care is important. Self care is something that should be practiced regularly. We should also practice letting go of the emotion that is only serving to destroy us emotionally and physically.
I definitely suggest schedule a massage, or scheduling a yoni steam (women), with me once we are out of the Stay at home order. You can also reach out to me to find out about my virtual yoga sessions. I would recommend the personal yoga sessions so that we can work directly with your situation. In the main time, consider visiting the shop to find at home personal care products.
Check in tomorrow as we go over the emotional factor of fear and it’s impact.
Namaste
~Ony
[…] yesterday’s blog, I started the discussion on the affects of emotions on our organs. I specifically talked about the […]