Where does emotional stress lodge itself in the body?
The language of the body is emotions, and in Traditional Chinese Medicine the understanding of where emotions are stored in our body is based on the five element chart.
The five elements, based on the elements of nature, include; fire, earth, metal, water and wood, with each element representing an area of the body, with corresponding organs.
Energy flows between the organs of the body and around our body. This is the flow of chi, or what’s commonly called energy. When an area is out of harmony, it affects the whole.
If our language is primarily emotional, a major reason for imbalances, illness and dis-ease in our organs is emotional stress. So, according to the five element chart, where do emotions sit in the body?
Grief and sadness
Grief sits in two major areas of the body and both are in the metal element.
The first is in the lungs and in Traditional Chinese Medicine we call our lungs the seat of grief. When we experience sadness, grief, loss and longing, we feel it straining against our chests and we find it hard to breathe deeply. It’s a tightening feeling like the grip of life is closing a fist around us.
Our intestines store a huge amount of emotions in the cellular lining. Every emotion we’ve ever experienced lodges itself in this area, in particular, in the large intestine.
When we experience grief we find it hard to let go, storing all the emotions inside of us, in particular, around the rings of Houston which sit on the lower left side of our abdomen. This often causes severe constipation as we refuse to let these emotions go.
Anger and irritation
Anger, irritability and impatience all sit in the liver and gallbladder, our wood element.
When we feel any form of irritation and annoyance, at ourselves or at others, we can experience a myriad of symptoms that indicate our liver and gallbladder have stored up emotions that need releasing.
Symptoms of an emotional imbalance in this area include headaches, aches and soreness, feeling toxic and sticky, with pain and tension around the neck and upper back, and with sluggish bowels.
An old saying of “I’m feeling liverish” was used to explain how someone was feeling angry. Our liver is incredibly complex and when we overburden it with resentment, jealousy, anger and irritation, we stop it from doing its job properly. Holding onto these emotions against others is only taking the poison ourselves.
Lack of joy
Lack of joy sits in many areas of the body, in particular, our small intestine which is the fire element. If you’re experiencing bloating or pain above your belly button, this is an indication of inflammation in the small intestine, perhaps stemming from a lack of joy in an area of your life. Perhaps with work, family, relationship or self.
The small intestine is also the same point as the solar plexus chakra which is all about confidence, motivation and having a sense of purpose, all things which can feel low when we’re lacking in joy.
Aside from our small intestine, we can also experience a lack of joy in our hormonal system, circulatory system and in our heart, which is the most obvious one. All these systems are around fire, circulation and love, and can all be affected by a lack of happiness in our lives.
Fear and stress
Fear is all about the bladder and kidneys, the water element. Why do little children wet the bed? It’s often to do with fear of the dark, monsters, being alone, or something similar.
We too experience fear in our day-to-day lives, this fear then sits in our kidney and bladder meridians, as well as in our adrenals. When we’re scared our adrenals release all the stress hormones that race around our body, putting us on high alert and preparing us for fight, flight or freeze.
If you find yourself going to the loo often, if you’re experiencing chronic and repetitive cystitis, bladder infections and UTI’s, it could mean that there is a fear, either past or present, lodged in this area of the body.
Nervousness and worry
Our stomach and spleen are the center points where we hold anxiety, lack of worth and feelings of invalidation, firmly in our earth element.
The gut-brain connection via the Vagus nerve is well known, and makes sense when you think of butterflies you feel in the stomach area when nervous. All unease and worry sits firmly in the stomach area which is why we can’t eat when nervous or feel sick with anxiety.
The spleen is also a crucial part of our immune system. When we don’t receive validation, love and support from others it can really impact our spleen’s function. A result of this is a dampened immune response, meaning we can feel run down much more easily.
When we feel a lack of sweetness in life, stemming from a lack of being heard, listened to and understood, which are all crucial human needs, we can tend to reach for a sugar fix to perk ourselves up which then further imbalances the spleen and runs us down even more.
How to release emotions in the body
There are a number of wonderful ways to support yourself on your healing journey.
If you know that there are emotions under the surface that are keeping you stuck in your life and unable to move forwards, then finding out ways to release them is an important next step. You can do this through journaling, which helps you to connect to your true feelings, or any kind of writing practice.
You can try through somatic bodywork practices such as conscious dancing (or it’s sometimes know as 5Rhythms), which helps you to express your feelings through the movements in your body - something I personally found incredibly healing and powerful.
You can also try meditation to help you connect to yourself and all the knowledge you hold within you, which is one of the foundations for getting to know yourself. And if you don’t like meditating, there are all sorts of different ones out there to try - whether it’s moving meditations, guided meditations or dancing meditations.
If you struggle to know how you’re really feeling emotionally, then you may need some support and guidance so you can safely remove any trauma and emotional stress from your body. Trauma often gets suppressed, and as a result we disconnect from it, without realising that it can get stored in the body.
A great book to start with is Louise Hay’s book You Can Heal Your Life, or Gabor Maté’s book Your Body Keeps the Score which both dive into this topic.
And finally, if you’d like to release emotional burdens and limiting beliefs to create powerful, positive transformations in your life from the inside out then I offer online Divine Healing sessions - helping you to uncover and release emotional stress in a safe and powerful way. I also offer monthly group healing in my membership Your Authentic Soul to bring gentle awareness to what’s going on under the surface.
