Last update: Augusts 28, 2016
According to Chinese medicine, every emotion is related to an organ and a function of the human body. The most common causes of illness are pessimistic attitudes and negative emotions such as guilt, resentment, need for attention and fear. Any emotional imbalance can turn into symptoms or diseases affecting the aforementioned organs.
The disease arises to avoid unpleasant situations or to try to escape from them. Oriental medicine says that every discomfort, after all, tells us that we must love each other. By loving ourselves, we allow our heart, and not our ego, to direct our life.
Emotions that can trigger a disease according to Chinese medicine
Following the perspective of Chinese medicine, here are some emotions that can indicate some disease or ailment:
- Sadness or pain. It originates from disappointment or, in more serious cases, from separation or loss. It mainly affects the lungs. Sadness affects the whole body and produces heaviness, shortness of breath, fatigue and depression. We need time to accept and express our sadness.
- Precaution. It arises from insecurity and tends to debilitate the spleen. The precaution is related to chest and shoulder diseases.
- Fear. Fear is associated with the kidneys: it affects the pit of the stomach and is related to kidney failure. These alterations come from the propensity to suffer from irrational fears. Unaccepted fear causes liver and heart problems.
- Terror. It is similar to fear, but more extreme; it is associated with physical and emotional problems. Terror can involve memory loss, disorientation, throbbing, dizziness, tremors, sweating, and fainting.
- Anger. It can manifest itself in various forms: irritability, frustration, envy and anger. Anger turns into headaches, neck pain, dizziness and, above all, liver disease.
The emotional significance of diseases
It is important to know the meaning of diseases, because it is a form of expression of our body. All our emotions and thoughts are registered in the cells and diseases are a cry that indicates that something is not right.
The following list is a summary of the significance of some of the more common diseases. They are all based on holistic medicine both in Traditional Chinese Medicine and in other complementary Oriental medicine.
- Allergies. Their meaning points to deep fears. Fear of not being able to overcome difficulties when it is necessary to be self-sufficient; therefore, one seeks to obtain compassion, support and attention from others.
- Depression. The meaning lies in the conflict between the ideal and the real, between who we are and who we want to be, between what we own and what we want to own.
- Arthritis. Feeling unable to adapt and being mentally flexible. It is interpreted as a lack of confidence and an uncompromising attitude towards life.
- Obesity. Its meaning is found in the inner emptiness, food is used to compensate for it. Fear of exposing oneself to others, of being vulnerable and of suffering.
- Nervousness. Absence of contact with one's inner self. Egocentrism, subjectivity in every situation. You are insecure, you are afraid of being attacked and you are unable to get rid of your selfish attitudes.
Emotions can trigger or accentuate a disease, but at the same time they can reverse the situation by making us heal.
For that to happen, you just have to knowing how to recognize the emotions that cause imbalances in our body and transform them. Eastern medicine pays particular attention to the self-knowledge of emotions, an aspect that Western medicine is also starting to take into consideration. This is because a comprehensive treatment, which attacks the problem from different perspectives, has a better chance of being effective.
