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Anger Affects Our Health
By peace | August 4, 2007
It is natural for us to experience a variety of emotions when different circumstances occur in our lives. Fear protects us from danger, anger helps us to assert our rights and it is normal to feel grief when we have lost someone or something.
Anger, fear, joy, grief, shock, worry and sadness are all emotions which the Chinese recognize can affect our health. The Chinese named these emotions the “Internal Causes” of disease because we generate them from inside ourselves. In contrast, illnesses caused by weather conditions like heat, cold or damp are called “External Causes”. “Lifestyle Causes” such as diet, exercise or overwork are called ‘not internal and not external causes’.
Although the Chinese named only seven emotions as Internal causes, these seven include all other emotions. For example, frustration, depression, resentment, irritation, bitterness and rage all come under the general heading of Anger. Fear can also be fright, terror or anxiety. Grief can include emptiness, longing, regret or remorse.
All emotions are normal in appropriate circumstances and we usually recover from their effects. Emotions tend to cause disease when they are extremely prolonged or intense, or if they are not expressed or acknowledged. Emotional traumas often start when we are children. If the emotional effects of life’s circumstances are not dealt with, the scars can stay with the child and manifest later in life as ill-health. For example, children who are under five at the time of a family break-up are up to five times more likely to have a psychiatric illness later on in life.
How Anger Affect Our Health
Unexpressed anger is probably one of the most common causes of ill-health in today’s society. Chinese medicine teaches that the organs have other ‘functions’ beyond the characteristics defined by Western medicine. Different emotions affect these functions in the different organs. Anger will affect the functions connected to the Liver. Interestingly, one Liver function is to allow the Qi to flow smoothly and easily throughout the body. If the Qi flow is smooth, then we are relaxed. When we are angry or tense, the Qi can become constricted. Many of the symptoms of PMT are due to the lack of free flowing Qi. Other symptoms include tension, bloating, swollen breasts and mood swings. The liver also affects the eyes and influences the eyesight.
Topics: Health, View All Post |
