What Does Anger Do to Our Body?
Emotion is a crucial factor that affects our wellbeing. Well balanced emotions allow the body to heal from injuries and diseases, while emotional disturbances can lead to short-term and long-term physical discomfort, and even contribute to hormonal imbalance, immune disorders, and other recalcitrant diseases. Our emotions are governed by the Liver organ system (abbreviated as “the Liver” hereinafter), whose nature resembles that of a spring — the resilient device that returns to its original helical shape after being pressed or pulled. Flexibility is one of the main functions of the Liver (“Bai Hu Tong,” 【白虎通義】 Volume 3, Chapter 3 The Five Phases 五行). It allows us to adapt to challenging environments and situations.
On the second hand, as stated in The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon, Su Wen 【黃帝内經·素問】, Chapter 8, the Liver is the General Official 將軍之官, strategies and planning are derived from it 謀慮出焉. A healthy Liver gives us the power and creativity to overcome difficulties and remove obstacles. As we live and move through the world, the Liver enables us to set goals, strategize, and plan moves that will maximize our wellbeing and minimize jeopardy. It is an uplifting, expanding force that makes us feel motivated and confident. By honing skills associated with the Liver, we can strengthen our body in the corresponding aspects.
Contrarily, failure to make feasible plans or be defeated by challenges generate injurious energies in the Liver, which is signified by emotions such as anger, frustration, and/or depression. When the Liver is in excess we tend to feel angry in such situations, while a deficient Liver may make us feel depressed. Anger is fueling pathogenic heat into our system. This heat generated by anger is often illustrated in cartoons and comic books as fire or hot smoke gushing out of an angry person’s head or orifices. This illustrated fire or hot smoke is more real than just a metaphor — it is actually what’s happening in the body at the moment of anger.
Temporary anger and depression can disrupt the normal Qi mechanism and creates obstructions, or Qi “knots” in the body, such a condition usually manifest as discomfort in the subcostal regions, sensation of an alien object stuck in the throat, difficulty swallowing, frequent sighing, acid reflux, heartburn, shortness of breath, difficulty to inhale deeply, etc. These symptoms are categorized under the Chinese medicine disease name “Liver Qi stagnation,” or “Liver Depression.” If left untreated, the depressed Liver organ system can generate pathogenic heat (compression generates heat). Since the Liver stores the Blood, the pathogenic heat tends to manifest in the Blood layer (the deepest layer of tissue in the Warm Disease School system), especially for women, because a female body is governed by the Blood. Heavy menstruation, shortened menstrual cycles (shorter than 28 days), nosebleed before the menses, hot sensation in the palms and face, etc. may be resulted from the constraint heat in the Blood. Being aware of our emotions helps us monitor our health conditions and make timely adjustments so that we do not harm our body.
On the other hand, chronic inflammation damages the immune system, which may have two results: 1. compromised cellular immunity, making an individual susceptible to fungal, bacterial, viral infections; 2. hyperactive humoral immunity, which may result in autoimmune disorders, and cancers/tumors.
Anger is one of the five injurious emotions that causes internal diseases. It damages the Liver when we indulge in explosive emotions, or to suppress our true feelings. The art of living from a Daoist perspective is to maintain the dynamic balance between “excess” and “deficiency” at all levels. As the ancient Chinese saying puts it, “excess is just another form of deficiency.”
Therefore, exercising our emotional muscles, finding safe outlets for our uncomfortable feelings, gaining insights by talking to people with perspectives, receiving holistic therapies are some of the useful tools to maintain a healthy Liver. The Liver helps us bounce back to health when we fall ill. It gives us vital force to grow, expand, and express our true self. It assists us to build new connections with others and the world. Do not allow frustration to dominate your life, since it might be a lifelong journey to learn to acknowledge and allow our emotions to flow, smoothly and naturally as possible, without pointing the arrow of anger towards others, especially ourselves.