Your emotions may be contributing to your health issue, here’s what you can do about it (Part 2)
We learned in Part 1 that emotions often contribute to health issues – including back, neck and shoulder pain, digestive complaints, fertility, migraine and high blood pressure. We also learned that by avoiding excess and not repressing emotions, our Qi and blood can flow unhindered which is necessary for good health.
In this Part 2, we discuss common causes of mental and emotional imbalance and what you can do about it.
What causes an unhealthy state of mind and emotions?
There are many challenges associated with being human! We can consider several common causes of emotional imbalance.
Past or recent traumas triggering intense emotional waves
Intense emotional events from the past (for example, childhood) leave imprints in the psyche that shapes how you react to or respond to current life circumstances. These imprints in the body of energy are called ‘samskaras’ as described in the ancient Indian texts the Upanishads. Samskaras tend to trigger reactions, amplify emotions or manipulate your choices long after the original trauma has been forgotten. They are like emotional blockages and keep you stuck.
Modern addiction to stimulation
It is challenging to cultivate a peaceful inner state given the modern addiction to intense stimulation. The stimulation from online games, Netflix, drugs, and alcohol mean our mind and emotions are rarely at peace. For example, using screens (Yang stimulation) well into the night when Yin (calm, quiet, dark) should prevail, is a common contributor to sleep disturbances through overstimulating the mind.
Cultural challenges
We can grow up with cultural or family attitudes about what emotions are “ok” or “not ok”. These beliefs can establish unhelpful habits of expression or repression. These attitudes can limit the free flow of emotions and/or create a holding onto or stifling emotions (commonly anger), long after an event has occurred with harmful effects on your Qi.
Lack of emotional education
Unlike maths and english, few people learn about the basic building blocks of emotional health at school or at home. Most of us are left to grapple with our minds and emotions through life events. We are not taught the basic understanding of the mechanisms of mind and emotions, their effect on our life force, or how to process them in a healthy way.
So, how can I cultivate a harmonious internal state?
There are many options to supporting your inner harmony. This includes observing your triggers, releasing emotional blockages, maintaining a harmonious state through everyday routines and acupuncture, and internal cultivation through meditation.
You can begin by observing your inner state, as objectively as possible. When do certain unhelpful emotions get triggered and why? What are the internal beliefs and narrative that you uphold and how does this affect how you see the world? Can you sense an emotional component within the tension in your body? This self-education will begin the process of separation and speed up your ability to “let go”.
For emotional blockages associated with samskaras and unprocessed trauma, you can find release through deep internal work using “Inner Space Techniques” (as developed by the Clairvision school of meditation). There are also specialised subtle acupuncture techniques that work at this deep level via the Extraordinary channels or the Luo vessels.
You can engage in daily activities that help to regulate and maintain your inner state. This might include spending time in nature, regular exercise, sunshine in the morning, regular meal times with nourishing food (it’s fascinating to observe how your diet affects your mind and emotions!), creative activities that free or empower you, or spending time with people you love. Explore what these are for you.
The Chinese practice of ‘yang sheng’ (nourishing life) teaches us how to support life in accordance with the natural way (yin and yang) through our daily activities. Ask your Chinese medicine practitioner what this might look like for you through diet, exercise and so on. This will inevitably also assist in regulation of the emotions.
Acupuncture can help you achieve emotional balance. Acupuncture works simultaneously on your physical, mental and emotional levels and frees the flow of Qi and Blood so that people who seek treatment for physical ailments also notice the effect on their mental state.
You can practice meditation or Qigong to directly cultivate your internal state and your Qi, and experience realms of your being, beyond the ordinary mind, that are not affected by emotions. This takes time, practice, perseverance, and a lot of processing and is more productive to do with the guidance of a teacher and a community of peers. But the rewards in the long-term promise freedom from the endless play of mental and emotional waves.
What to know more?
I welcome you to contact me for a free 15-minute phone consultation, or you can make an appointment to see me in clinic.
Photo by Anastasia Skylar on Unsplash