So you’re not feeling great. Maybe you’ve been diagnosed with a borderline condition—cholesterol or blood pressure, fatty liver, pre-diabetes, or early signs of arthritis. You’re sent home with strict instructions to take better care of yourself. You do your best. You buckle down for a while, buy a gym membership, eliminate sugar, add fiber, consume the recommended supplements. Maybe you even go vegan. Months later, your lab results still aren’t in range. Soon you’ll be on those pills you swore you’d never take.

How do you turn this around?

Doing everything in your power physically and nutritionally are obvious elements of healing. But there’s usually more to it. The body is an incredibly intelligent, interactive biological and energetic matrix that in most cases is ready and willing to cooperate with our best efforts. But sometimes we are our own opposition. If we have bodily complaints, one reason may be that we spend too much time complaining about our bodies.

We’ve all heard the mantra:

“You’re not thin enough. You’re not tall enough. You’re too busty. Too flat-chested. Too ugly. Too gangly. Too ordinary. Too pale. Too dark. Too old. Too little. Too much.”

Poor body image is an epidemic that at best sends us to the gym and diet counselor, and at worst creates disorders like depression, malnourishment, anorexia and bulimia. But these are only the obvious and conscious manifestations of the dialogue we have with our bodies. Much more occurs in our internal organs that may take decades to surface.

If you’ve explored holistic therapies, you’re familiar with the concept of Mind/Body as an inseparable unit. If you think you’re telling your body one thing and it’s doing the opposite, think again. It’s possible your inner subconscious track is giving your body a different set of messages. The Mind’s contribution to your physical condition is significant. Ideally, the Body receives what the Mind sends, processes it, and issues a response. If you’re well-tuned, happy, active and eating well, you are most likely supporting a robust immune system that will in turn support a confident, balanced, and expansive Mind. The health cycle thrives.

However, if you repeatedly transmit negative messages, they too, will take root in the body.

Decades ago, an auspicious trip to a recommended acupuncturist introduced me to a labyrinth of knowledge, both physical and emotional. Through many years, practitioners treated my body as a tightly connected system of meridians that corresponded not only to the outside world (via environmental, energetic, and dietary influences), but also to the inner world of my own thoughts and emotions. As above, so below. By exploring acupuncture and other ancient and contemporary energetic modalities (that are now mainstream), I came to understand the emotional messages I was sending, consciously or unwittingly, throughout my Mind/Body network, and where they landed.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), as well as other ancient therapies, every emotion has a corresponding organ. These organs help us to process the stress created by feelings we can’t (or won’t) shake. If we understand the connection, we can cooperate with the process and learn to resolve emotional issues. If we don’t, our organs may store that stress, risking stagnation and disease.

TCM teaches that emotional repositories are distributed throughout the body. For instance, the lungs are said to process grief and sadness. When grief and sadness are acute, the lungs become stressed, making us vulnerable to short term infections and chronic disease.

The liver/gall bladder stores unprocessed anger, frustration, rage, bitterness and resentment.

The kidneys store unprocessed fear and terror.

Unprocessed “frightful sadness” is stored in the heart.

Unprocessed hurt, a sense of depletion, and the inability to express emotions are said to be stored in the pericardium, brain, pituitary and reproductive organs.

The pancreas and spleen store unprocessed over-thinking, worry, and low self-esteem.

The stomach stores unprocessed disgust and despair.

The large intestine receives unprocessed emotions of guilt, defensiveness, and the sense of being ‘stuck’.

Feelings of insecurity, vulnerability and abandonment are processed and stored in the small intestine.

Irritation and timidity affect the bladder.

If we evaluate our organs in response to these associated emotions, it may reveal a pattern. Exposing a pattern may make us more willing to evaluate lingering issues in our lives, such as accumulated guilt, resentment, or lack of forgiveness. We may understand more directly the need to remove ourselves from abusive or otherwise hurtful situations. We may be more proactive in resetting career goals or leaving a frustrating, dead-end job. We may be willing to confront our addictions. Understanding and interrupting negative emotional patterns is one of the most useful tools at our disposal for improving and maintaining health.

How to stop sabotaging yourself:

1) Spend more time listening to your body and less time complaining about it.

2) Determine what your body is trying to tell you.

3) Catch yourself whenever you’re tempted to undermine any aspect of your body, superficial or functional. (For example, instead of saying, “This damn knee…hip…shoulder”—send love to the injured joint, which has, after all, served you well up to this point.

4) Identify the areas of concern and the associated emotions.

5) Consider addressing these concerns early on through medical and complementary therapies such as acupuncture, therapeutic massage, chiropractic, yoga, REIKI and other energetic therapies, as well as psychological counseling.

6) Learn to meditate. Meditation gives volume to your inner voice.

7) At the end of every day, acknowledge your body, concentrating on areas of inflammation, infection, or chronic discomfort.

8) Send gratitude like a waterfall from the top of your head slowly down the neck, chest, abdomen, into your internal organs to your legs, and finally into your feet which map your body and root you to the earth. Give your body the appreciation it deserves and visualize repair.

9) Expect wellness instead of illness.

10) Be prepared for a change in course.

© 2015 Rea Nolan Martin

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