In-motion E-motion

In Chinese Medicine, the emotions are perceived as movements of Qi and each emotion increases a particular quality of that Qi. Liver has the role in creating a smooth flow of energy throughout the body, including the smooth flow of our emotions. In particular, the Liver is related to the emotion of anger. It is quite common to see clinically that most excess or repressed emotions can be observed in the Liver Qi.

When we experience frustration, anger or agitation, and when it lingers in our mind and body for a bit too long, we call this Qi Stagnation. This creates a bit of a block of us. We can further experience these agitated emotions manifest in the body, showing up as tension headaches, shoulder tension, face tension. The Liver tries its best to move the stagnation. This can sometimes generate a heat in the body which could lead to something like a snap in the middle of a traffic jam or an argument with a partner. That snap is where the anger finally shifts and wants to move out! This is a very normal human reaction.

You are not a bad person because you get angry. And we could even dive in to a topic of how anger is an extension of fear and the emotion of anger is always a byproduct of a deeper truth (but let’s leave that big topic for now). Our reaction to something depends on our natural disposition, and on our individual nature. The nature of the reaction tells whether the desire in the heart is turned towards the development of life or towards what it is in conflict with it.

The push of emotion from the Liver is what gives us this epic ability to move through these emotion. To change and to grow. It is the aspect of our self which is the visionary and sees what needs to be done.

Think of an individual with the compassionate virtue like an activist or a mother protecting their child or a passionate lover. Beautiful expressions of the redirection of this energy.


Some antidotes to when you can feel that liver Qi rising a bit too much:

- Move it! Dance, exercise, shake it out

- Qigong, yin yoga, meditation- reset the nervous system big belly breaths here

- Check in with your heart.

- Redirect the energy- get passionate about something!

- A walk in nature where there is loads of green or wood.

- Fly a kite (or admire something from far away). Metaphorically as well, see things that distant as if they were close and close things as if they are distant. (Shifting the perspective)

Hope this helps,

BIG love, B.