Regulating Emotions

Historically, Chinese medicine doctors have pointed out that a healthy human body is more than just a lack of diseases and weakness, but also a sound mentality and social adaptive capacity. This proves to be especially important in modern society as we are experiencing an epidemic of psychosomatic disorders (diseases in which a mental disorder causes somatic symptoms). Normally seven emotions all play a part in coordinating the physiological functions of the five zang organs. However, excessive emotions that are beyond the scope of adjustment by our body can disturb the visceral Qi and Blood and cause diseases. In this post, we will discuss the TCM life cultivation perspective on emotions.

The foremost topic that needs to be addressed is anger. Throughout history, anger has been tabooed for life cultivation. Although the emotion is mainly associated with the liver, anger also impairs many other organs including the heart, stomach, and brain. We can see why life cultivation experts command that anger be avoided, or controlled if that is not possible. Everyone knows that it is not easy to control strong emotions like anger. The tip to restrain it, nevertheless, is to first think of the negative outcomes that could realistically happen whenever irritating situations occur. This makes our rationality kick in before we can act impulsively and thus helps us to restrain the anger. We may also consider hanging up aphorisms like “Restraining Anger”, “Ceasing to be Angry”, or even common posters like “Keep Calm and Drink Wine” in the office or the house like Chinese people did in the past and still do.

We may find that restraining our emotions like anger or frustration often results in a feeling of stuffiness over the chest or a sensation of a lump in the throat. In Chinese medicine, the sensation of a lump in the throat is called the “plum pit syndrome” and it is named as such because it feels as though a plum pit is stuck in the throat, unable to spit out nor swallow. The sensation of a lump in the throat or stuffiness over the chest was also commonly complained about by Korean women in the past. In Korea, the diagnosis for these symptoms was Hwa-Byeong (categorized as a culture-bound illness that arises from female gender roles and the patriarchal social structure, within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Hwa-Byeong is specific not only in its symptomology but also in its etiology where the cause is building up of anger over a long period of time. These women carried lots of responsibilities including taking care of their children and their in-laws and fulfilling the commands of their husbands all while carrying out household chores. They did not have much voice as talking back or objecting to the orders of their husbands or their parents-in-law were forbidden. 

To avoid the worsening of such symptoms or progression to other conditions, we need to adopt methods to vent these emotions. This may look like crying aloud in a place where there is no one when we are met with extreme grief. When it is emotions like frustration, anger, or constraint, it may be better to go to an open field and shout or participate in sports and other physical activities (e.g. walking, hiking, Taijiquan, dancing). It also helps to find two or three best friends to air out depression and even receive advice from them when circumstances can be changed. For depression, reading books or listening to music can help divert away from boredom and lethargy or get rid of distracting thoughts, alternatively.

When we are not distraught by negative emotions, we may try to mould our temperament by picking up hobbies like playing musical instruments, chess, painting, and calligraphy. These activities can increase our patience and ability to fine-control our expressions. In addition, we may set up our environment in specific ways to help regulate our emotions. For instance, certain interior and clothes colours may be selected to elicit specific emotions. This is simply refreshing the mind by pleasing the eyes. Warm colours like red, pink, and orange can stir feelings of excitement and joy in observers. This makes a connection to how the associated colour and the emotion for the Fire element are red and joy, respectively. These kinds of colours may be utilized in the surroundings of people suffering from depression, grief, lethargy, and dementia. Cold colours like blue, indigo, green, and purple can create the effect of tranquillizing and repression in observers. These colours may be adopted for people suffering from anger, insomnia, terror, mania, and epilepsy. It should be noted though, that the tone and temperature of the colour can also have an impact on our emotions apart from the colour itself. 

There also is a method of checking an excessive emotion using another emotion that antagonizes it, but this method is not recommended as it requires inducing an emotional stimulus of greater intensity than the emotion that needs to be suppressed. This can easily cause someone to just transfer from one pathological emotion to the next. On that note, a reminder of the "art of moderation" would be beneficial as too much is as bad as too little (過猶不及).  While playing games and drinking alcohol with friends can be ways to vent negative emotions, they should not be abused as that can lead to different sorts of illnesses. Try to be happy, as the saying "Be Healthy, Be Happy" goes both ways. You have to be happy, to be healthy.