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Welcome to this article series on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The aim of this series is to provide you with foundational and practical knowledge of TCM that you can use to improve your own health at home in daily life. The recommendations in this series are simple, accessible, and mostly free. After all, good health should be something that is accessible to everyone!
Here is a clickable table of contents for this series:
Emotions and Health
This article is Part 11: Emotions and Health.
Question: Do our emotions affect our physical health?
In the past, I used to think that our physical body is totally separate from our emotional life. After all, whenever I get sick, I take a pill that changes physiological factors. No one ever told me to manage my emotions to treat health problems.
Later, I learned that our emotions are indeed related to our physical health. For example, it's common knowledge in western medicine that anger raises blood pressure, and stress weakens the immune system. From a Chinese medicine perspective, emotions play a huge role in our health. I'm currently reading The Foundations of Chinese Medicine by Giovanni Maciocia, and chapter 20 of this book really opened my eyes to the relationship between emotions and physical health.
The book mentions that external pathogenic factors like heat, cold, and wind have to go through our skin and muscles before they can affect our internal organs, but emotions injure the internal organs directly. To be clear, Chinese medicine isn’t saying emotions are bad, nor does it over-emphasize the role of emotions. In the Chinese medicine perspective, emotions within certain amounts are fine and normal, but they can become causes of disease when they are long lasting, intense or both. In other words, emotions become causes of disease when we cannot control them and they instead control us. Below are some examples of emotions and their impact on our health from chapter 20.
(Disclaimer: This article is not meant to be medical advice or diagnosis. It is purely for educational purposes to help us understand the importance of managing emotions for our health and methods to do so.)
Part 1: Emotions And Their Impact On Health
1.1: Anger
The term "anger" should be interpreted broadly to include similar emotions such as resentment, irritability, frustration, rage, hatred, bitterness, and repressed anger. A person who has chronic or intense anger may experience symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, tinnitus, red face, and stiff neck.
If a person regularly gets angry 1-2 hours after meals, then anger will affect the intestines and can cause symptoms like abdominal pain, distention, and altering between constipation and diarrhea.
In Chinese medicine, different emotions have a primary organ that they affect. All emotions affect the Heart, and anger primarily affects the Liver. The Liver has a support role in digestion, which is why getting angry after meals hurts digestion. Each organ also has a meridian (channel) of points that acupuncturists and massage therapists use to treat patients.
The third point on the Liver meridian is called Taichong, and it is a good acupoint that we can massage at home to alleviate the symptoms of anger.
1.2: Joy (Overstimulation and Craving)
The term "joy" in this case is not a healthy state of contentment but rather one of excessive excitement and craving. Contentment is healthy and helps the mind be peaceful and relaxed, which benefits the body's digestion and immune system. Examples of things that lead to excessive stimulation include things like recreational drugs, alcohol, advertising, ambition, and even sex.
Overstimulation primarily affects the Heart and can lead to symptoms such as heart palpitations, over-excitability, insomnia, restlessness, and incessant talking. Some people get migraines after the sudden excitement of hearing exciting news. Sometimes, sudden laughter triggers a heart attack. Children who get overexcited can end up in tears. These are all examples of the harm of overstimulation and over-excitement.
1.3: Sadness
Sadness includes the emotions of grief and regret (when you can't stop thinking about a past mistake). Sadness mainly affects the Lungs and Heart, and it can lead to symptoms such as breathlessness, tiredness, discomfort in the chest, depression, and crying.
Sadness can also affect the Ethereal Soul (you can think of it as a component of our mental health), which can lead to symptoms such as mental confusion, depression, lacking a sense of direction in life, inability to plan one's life, and anxiety.
The seventh point on the Lung meridian is called Lieque, it is a good acupoint that we can massage to alleviate sadness.
1.4: Worry
Worry is one of the most common emotional causes of disease in our society. It mainly affects the Lungs and the Spleen (in Chinese medicine, the Spleen is responsible for digestion, and it includes some functions of the pancreas and liver in the western medicine sense).
Worry can cause symptoms involving the Lungs, such as an uncomfortable feeling of the chest, slight breathlessness, tensing of the shoulders, a dry cough, weak voice, and a pale complexion.
Spleen symptoms include poor appetite, slight epigastric (upper middle area of the abdomen) discomfort, abdominal distention (feeling bloated), tiredness, and pale complexion. Chinese medicine explains that the mind and physical body are interconnected, and the state of our organs affect the state of our mind. When the Spleen is healthy, we can focus on the object of our study or work. When the Spleen is disturbed by worry, it leads to constant thinking, brooding, and worrying about certain events in life.
Worry can also affect the Heart, leading to palpitations, a feeling of tightness in the chest, and insomnia.
The acupoint Lieque (mentioned earlier) is also a good acupoint to deal with worry.
1.5: Pensiveness
Pensiveness is similar to worry, but it's more about brooding, constantly thinking about certain events or people (without worrying), nostalgic hankering after the past, and generally thinking intensely about life rather than living in it. Calm contemplation is fine, but if this contemplation becomes excessive, then it can become pensiveness. In extreme cases, pensiveness leads to obsessive thoughts. In a different sense, pensiveness can also refer to excessive mental work in the process of one's work or study.
Pensiveness mainly affects the Spleen and can cause symptoms such as poor appetite, epigastric (upper middle area of the abdomen) discomfort, and abdominal distention (feeling bloated). Pensiveness can also affect the Heart and lead to palpitations, a slight feeling of tightness in the chest, and insomnia.
The third point on the Spleen meridian is called Taibai, and massaging it is a good way to deal with pensiveness.
1.6: Fear
Fear includes both chronic fear and a sudden fright. Fear mainly affects the Kidneys and the Heart.
If the Heart is strong, then fear will cause Qi (energy) to descend, which can lead to symptoms such as involuntary urination, bedwetting, and diarrhea. If the Heart is weak, fear can make Qi rise, leading to symptoms such as heat in the face, night sweating, palpitations, dry mouth and throat, and malar flush (a rash on the nose and cheeks).
The ninth point on the Kidney meridian is called Zhubin, and massaging it is a way to deal with fear.
Also, nourishing the Liver and Gallbladder can help a person be less fearful. This can be done by managing stress, massaging their respective meridians, sleeping before 11PM, and eating leafy greens.
1.7: Shock
Shock causes a sudden depletion of Qi, makes the Heart smaller, and may lead to palpitations, breathlessness, and insomnia.
The seventh point on the Heart meridian is called Shenmen, and massaging it can help deal with shock. Also, since all emotions affect the Heart, Shenmen is a good point to use in all emotional problems.
Here is a picture to summarize the above mentioned acupoints:
(Note that these are by no means an exhaustive list. A TCM professional would be able to make a professional judgment on which points are most suited to each person's unique situation.)
Part 2: TCM Advice For Nurturing The Mind
The above information is from the textbook The Foundations of Chinese Medicine. Now that we know the impact of emotions on our physical health, we probably want to know some methods for managing our emotions. This textbook doesn't go into detail on this aspect, but I previously read another textbook that does. The book is called Chinese Medicine Health Maintenance (the book is in Chinese, and its Chinese title is 中医养生学) by Guanglie Ma (马烈光) and Lisheng Jiang (蒋力生), and chapter 4 is all about nurturing the mind and regulating emotions.
The book says that nurturing the mind is the core of health maintenance in Chinese Medicine (that's a big difference from western medicine!), and that if one's mind is well cared for, then one's emotions and organs will be in harmony, and one will have a long, healthy life. How do we nourish the mind? By cultivating our morality and virtues, thereby making us less reactive to external circumstances and better able to keep a positive and relaxed attitude in life.
(Side note: I was quite fascinated when I read this because I am studying ancient philosophies, and ancient philosophers all emphasize the importance of cultivating morality and virtues, but I was not expecting ancient Chinese doctors to do the same! But once I understood the impact of emotions on our physical health, it totally makes sense.)
Specifically, the book gives five methods to nourish the mind:
Have a kind heart
Have a clear conscience
Often do good deeds
Reduce desires
Often reflect on one's moral cultivation
2.1: Have a kind heart
By always holding kindness in our heart, we can maintain harmony with other people. Naturally then, we would be free from worry and have a happy state of mind, which promotes longevity. In order to nurture our kindness, we should frequently put ourselves in other's shoes.
When we see other people suffering or unhappy, we can empathize with them, then we'd naturally want to help them be happier just like we'd want ourselves to be happy.
When we see other people's goodness, we can notice and feel how happy and peaceful their heart is from being a good person, and then we can encourage ourselves to emulate them.
When we see other people's immoral behavior, we should try to understand why they would do such behavior. Then we wouldn't be so critical and harsh. Instead, we would try to influence and inspire them to change by setting a good role model ourselves.
2.2: Have a clear conscience
People who don't do immoral things, such as harming others out of anger or envy, or cheating others for one's own gain, will have a clear conscience. They have nothing to hide, so they always feel at ease. People who do immoral things will often live in fear of being exposed or of losing what they gained.
2.3: Often do good deeds
People who often help others and do good deeds have a big heart. These people are usually very positive and happy, and they are rarely afflicted by worry, anger, and other negative emotions. Doing good deeds can catalyze the goodness we have inside of us, helping us to feel warm and pleasant, as well as alleviate our stress and negative emotions. On the other hand, having a small heart and only caring about oneself will only increase one's negative emotions and harm one's health.
2.4: Reduce desires
In chapter 19 of the Dao De Jing, the Daoist philosopher Laozi recommends us to "preserve simplicity and reduce selfish desires." Just to be clear, reducing selfish desires is not the same as having no desires. The meaning here is to dampen our desires for things like reputation (wanting to look good in others' eyes), wealth, and sensual pleasures (sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch).
When desires are excessive and we over-indulge in them, that will harm our health. Those who have strong and abundant desires are never contented. Their mind is full of thoughts and agitation, resulting in their mind and spirit never being at ease.
On the other hand, if we overly pressure ourselves to block all desires, then that can create feelings of gloominess and depression. Thus, the Middle Way is very important. Desires and emotions ought to be in a suitable amount and tempered with reason and rationality. When we moderate our desires, our mind and spirit can calm down and become tranquil, which then brings harmony and peace to our mind and body.
2.5: Often reflect on one's character cultivation
The above mentioned points all relate to cultivating our moral character. These are all good for our mental and physical health. Another important aspect is frequent self-reflection.
A great role model is Zengzi, who is a student of Confucius. He said,
"Every day I examine myself on three things: in serving others, have I been fully devoted and done my best? In interacting with friends, have I been trustworthy? For the lessons I've received and will give, have I reviewed and practiced them?"
Similarly, we can set a time every day to self-reflect on whether our actions, speech, and thoughts this day accords with our conscience and meets our aspirations for ourselves.
Part 3: TCM Advice For Regulating Emotions
The above are ways to increase positive emotions like contentment, peace, and serenity. But in life, we will all encounter difficult situations and have strong negative emotions. How can we regulate our emotions when this happens? The book gives us four major methods:
Shift your focus
Reframe the situation
Get therapy and guidance
Practice deep breathing
3.1: Shift your focus
When we have strong negative emotions, such as worry, annoyance, gloominess, depression, anxiety, and fear, it's easy to get sucked into a negative spiral. If we just tell ourselves to stop thinking about it, it feels hard. But if we can change our environment and/or shift our focus to something else, then we'll naturally stop thinking about it. It's important to use healthy distractions, such as playing an instrument, chess, reading, drawing, or exercising. These types of activities help to raise our spirits and calm our minds. Once we are calm, we can face the situation more rationally.
3.2: Reframe the situation
Situations get us down because of the way we view the situation and ourselves. We may view ourselves as victims of circumstance. But actually, circumstances are neutral in nature, it is our beliefs that give them the label of "good" or "bad". For example, some people get down in the face of difficulty, while others use that difficulty to motivate them to improve themselves and try even harder. We can reframe the situation and tell ourselves that we have to use this difficulty to become stronger, and that we can definitely do it.
Comment: Here is a really great short video titled "Use The Difficulty" that matches the book's message.
Another way to reframe the situation is to take a higher and longer perspective on things. When we zoom out, our problems will seem much smaller. How many times have we made a big deal out of something in the past, but after a few weeks, months, or years, we already forgot about it? If we didn't get something we want, rather than obsessing over it, we can think about other ways to attain the same end goal. As long as we persevere, we'll definitely find a way. These are all ways of reframing our mindset to recover calm and hope.
3.3: Get therapy and guidance
When we have strong negative emotions, it can be very helpful to seek therapy or advice from a professional or from someone whom we trust is wise and kind. They can give us comfort, hope, and encouragement in our time of need. They can also provide us with useful wisdom and advice that we can't think of by ourselves to better solve our problems.
Comment: In my experience, ancient philosophical teachings offer marvelous therapy and guidance for our emotional problems. For example, past philosophers teach us that when things don't go the way we want, we ought to reflect on ourselves rather than blame others or external factors. That means reflecting on our contribution to the problem and focusing on what's in our control (our thoughts and actions) rather than demanding what's outside our control (other people and circumstances) to change. Such teachings help us to let go of accumulated frustration and direct our energy towards a positive, useful, and productive direction.
3.4: Practice Deep breathing
Practicing deep, slow breathing can help us to relax the mind and nourish our spirit. It's even better if we can practice deep breathing outside in fresh air.
Comment: The textbook didn't have too much on this section, but it's easy for us to find a guided breathing meditation online.
Conclusion
We all know the importance of food, exercise, and sleep on our health. But in western medicine, the impact of emotions on our health is not emphasized nearly as enough as it should be. Comparatively, Chinese medicine puts a strong emphasis on managing emotions for good health.
When emotions are excessive and long-lasting, they directly harm our internal organs and can lead to physical symptoms. In order to harmonize our emotions and nourish the mind, we should cultivate our moral character, moderate desires, do good deeds, and follow our conscience. When we encounter difficult situations and have strong negative emotions, we can regulate our emotions by shifting our focus, reframing the situation, getting therapy and guidance, and doing deep breathing.
As Voltaire said,
"I have chosen to be happy because it is good for my health."
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