The emotions that you experience have nothing to do with who you really are.
Most people are so attached to their emotions that if asked to simply drop their “frustration” or “anger” or “neediness” they find themselves unable to do it. Emotions are at the root of most suffering and will eventually manifest physically in the body. Emotions move on a continuum in the same way as the elements described in my post Five Elements: the Foundation of Chinese Medicine, and when emotions linger at the extremes of the continuum, the result is dis-ease, literally.
Acupuncture and Emotions
In my opinion, the most beneficial use of Traditional Acupuncture is in it’s ability to regulate emotions. Treatments designed to even out emotional imbalances result in feelings of ease and well-being that can transform a person’s view of themselves and life. This is a level of healing that cannot be bottled, will never be made into a pill and is priceless.
Take a moment to read through this chart, carefully, and be honest with yourself; what are the emotions that you get caught up in? Do you think that being aware that these emotions will damage your body, changes the way you will associate with them?
Living the Middle Way
What is important is not to strive for perfection (I don’t know anyone personally who can live in the middle column all the time). What is more important is to begin to recognize when you are experiencing an emotion that falls in the “deficient” or “excess” column. Recognize it for what it is, suffering that you have the power to change.
The Answer is in One Breath
The best way to pull yourself out of these unhealthy emotional states is to take one deliberate, conscious breath, and at that moment, bring the attention to your body as you breath, and distance yourself from that feeling, observe it move out of you. It is not you. This takes no time, no time. The more frequent you acknowledge the unhealthy state for what it is, the quicker you will be able to even know when you are in it. Most of the time we are on automatic pilot and do not even know that we are in reaction.
Most people that I work with are completely unaware of the power that emotions have over our health. It is not a stretch to see the extremes of deficiency and excess as they are playing out in our culture and the world we live in today. Look around you, begin to observe people, see how quickly emotions take over situations and cause suffering. Could life be different?