Chinese Medicine Does Not Separate Humans From Nature or Their Own Nature

I identify as a Five Element practitioner within the rich and diverse traditions of Chinese Medicine. As a 5E practitioner, I learned to focus on the emotional health of my patients, rather than just a focus on body systems and biology. My intakes revolve around the emotions, asking into what brings them joy, makes them sad, what they worry about, have anger about, or fear, and what they value or inspires them and how they grieve. We believe that lumps and bumps come and go, but the reason they stick around is usually emotionally-related. All human beings are subjected to natural rhythms in an unnatural world. Rather than reducing them to the body in front of us, we dive deeper into teaching how you naturally interact with your world, and are naturally affected by your relationships, schedules, seasonal cycles and major transitions in life.

Understanding How the Emotions Move Energetically In The Body

According to Chinese Medicine theory, the emotions run with the blood, and as such often affect us through blood as unresolved emotional trauma can wreak havoc on our bodies in the form of blood stagnation or depletion (can lead to heart attacks, angina, menstrual issues, depression, etc,) heat in the blood (causing rashes, high blood pressure headaches, dryness, mania, etc,) and general changes in the quality and quantity of our blood that we can feel.

The emotions move differently energetically in our bodies. Anger rises. Fear Sinks. Worry is Circular. Grief is an abyss that comes in waves and moves first up and then down. Joy is upward and outward or it can also draw you towards something like a magnet. Understanding the direction our energy is moving while experiencing our emotions can allow us to identify what we are feeling faster in our processing and energetically apply remedies BEFORE they do damage and result in chronic illness, mental and emotional health issues, or ruin relationships that are emotionally-taxing on us.

What To Do With Emotions That Feel Out of Control

All of our emotions need balance. The first step to controlling our emotions, while still feeling them, is to learn to sit with them and observe your emotional reactions. This brings a level of consciousness to how we are acting while feeling our emotions. The next step is to refrain from changing the energy direction right away and FEEL WHAT YOU FEEL without actively responding to what you're feeling. Try to practice neutrality in judging yourself or anyone else while you are experiencing an emotional response to any situation. Next, try to practice empathy for anyone else involved in the situation. What are their feelings? Can you put yourself in their position, even if only for a moment, and try to see from their perspective? Finally, if a directional change is needed, try to aim for ending in a neutral position. Pull your energy inward. If anger is rising, is there a way to bring the energy down? If it's at a place where you feel rage, maybe the best thing you can do is push the energy up and out. You can engage in scream therapy, run around the block until too tired to feed the rising energy, or breaking something (I suggest ice...it's quite satisfying to throw it on the ground, doesn't ruin anything and easy to clean up.) If not dealing with extremes but still feeling anger on the rise, try breathing techniques and meditation, yin yoga and stretching or moving meditations like qigong. If fear has you in fight, flight or freeze mode, examine if your fear is rational or irrational. Focus on the people and things that you love and are grateful for. Fear is the lowest vibration humans can feel. The highest vibrations are love and authenticity. Be yourself as you examine your fears and know that focusing on all the love you have is the remedy. Worry can keep us up at night with circular thinking. If you have the inability to get out of a pattern of worrying about anything in your life, try to practice surrenduring to your circumstances. This is different than acceptance in that while you may surrender to the fact that things are beyond your control, you give yourself permission to work on what you can control instead. Grief is something many people struggle with. Can you ride that wave until it passes? Can you accept that it's a process that comes in waves until we climb out of the abyss? The opposite of Joy is sadness. Can you break out of the melancholy with surrounding yourself with those who make you feel loved and cared for? If all else fails, ground yourself in nature for any stuck emotions you feel.

At the end of the day, like everything else, emotions are just energy...in motion. When we mask emotions, we are resisting the way the energy needs to flow in order to move through us. What we fight, we make more of, leading to problems of all levels. Understanding how to feel all the feels without also feeling overwhelmed or overcome by them is a practice we all must come to terms with in order to have balance, fluidity and harmony in our lives.

If struggling to move through your emotions alone, please consider a 5E Acupuncture appointment, Massage, or Reiki appointment or any calming service at Divinitude!