Do you know you can stay healthy just by managing your emotions? The mind and body are interlinked, according to Chinese medicine. Excessive swings in emotion will disrupt one’s qi (vital energy) circulation in the body, and is often the prelude to the onset of illnesses.
Chinese medicine recognizes seven emotions and their impact on the human body. Joy connects with the heart, anger with the liver, worry and grief with the lungs, pensiveness with the spleen, and panic and fear with the kidneys.
Here’s how your seven emotions can affect you if left unchecked. Learn to temper them, remain emotionally balanced, and get healthier today!
Joy
Be careful not to let your happiness hurt your heart. (Laughter via Shutterstock)
Yes, there can be too much of a good thing.
Joy is a source of positive stress, but it’s stress nonetheless. Excessive happiness causes qi to flow irregularly to one’s heart, leading to anxiety, palpitations, and insomnia.
How to tell if you’re getting a little too happy for your own good? Watch out for the almost involuntary desire to break out in laughter and meander aimlessly.
Quick Tip: No, you should not therefore be a stoic. Just be a tiny bit reserved in your celebrations and expressions of happiness, and you should be fine.
Anger
So angry that you feel your head’s about to explode? Time to consider meditation. (Anger via Shutterstock)
This is a no-brainer. The rushing of qi to one’s spleen and liver will induce headaches, dizziness, a lost of appetite, and even cause nasty, nasty things to spew out from both ends!
Of course there are Chinese herbal formulas to help dispel excess liver qi, but if you’re always angry, they won’t help in the long run.
Quick Tip: Best advice? Learn to calm yourself down by self-cultivation and meditation, and watch your anger-related illnesses vanish as your temper cools.
Panic
In times of panic, keep calm and count to ten. (Panic via Shutterstock)
Sure, we panic every once in a while when we miss that last train or when rushing to meet a deadline, but it’s definitely unhealthy to panic over every single thing life throws our way.
Constant panic results in chronic stress, which affects the qi flow to the heart and kidneys. One would feel anxious all the time, experience rapid heartbeats, and lose sleep.
Quick Tip: A good trick to prevent the onslaught of panic is in a stressful situation count to 10. Don’t rush to react to situations instantly.
Worrying and Pensiveness
Excessively worrying can lead to intense loneliness and poor health. (Pensiveness via Shutterstock)
These two emotions are related. One who worries about things excessively will eventually close him or herself off to the world, perpetuating a vicious cycle of negative stress on one’s body.
The result is loss of appetite, color, and breathlessness, as qi struggles to flow through the spleen and lungs. Eventually, one’s heart will also be affected.
Quick Tip: It’s good to talk about your stressful situations to a friendly, listening ear. Verbalizing problems can make them seem less insurmountable, and you’d be able to stop worrying and move on in life.
Grief
Show support to those in grief. (Grief support via Shutterstock)
Feeling constantly short of breath, quickly fatigue, and down right depressed? Chinese medicine understands grief to restrict qi flow to one’s lungs, causing the outbreak of these symptoms.
Quick Tip: Sometimes, grief is really unavoidable, such as in the case of a recently departed loved one, or getting the sack. You can help someone in grief out by being optimistic and reminding them about the positive aspects of life. Just showing that you’re there for support can work wonders.
Fear
Have you felt so fearful you just want to crawl between your sheets? (Fear via Shutterstock)
A most crippling emotion, fear can cause a one to have a death-like pallor, constantly feel giddy, and in severe cases, collapse.
In cases of extreme fear, both adults and children will even lose control of their bladders, leading to an embarrassing situation. The desire to urinate stems from the depletion of qi in the kidneys. A prolonged lack of qi in the kidneys will inevitably cause chronic fatigue.
Quick Tip: It’s okay to be frightened, but learn to build some resistance after each experience. Pick yourself up, and keep plugging away to make your life fear-free and awesome!
(*Horizon via Shutterstock)
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