31/03/2025
31 March
✨ The wisdom of the BODYMIND and Spirit ✨
A few of you have commented on the recent post linking the organs and emotions, and what ancient traditions have been telling us all along. This is a long post, but it is so important to tune into what our body and mind as a unit is telling us.
Modern science is finally catching up to what ancient systems of healing have known for eons: emotions are not just psychological—they are physiological, biochemical, and energetic events that deeply impact the health and function of our organs.
The Taoist system, (as reflected in Mantak Chia’s Inner Alchemy chart), understood that emotions are stored in the body—not metaphorically, but literally. Each organ is not just a filter or pump but a consciousness centre, deeply intertwined with our mental, emotional, and spiritual lives.
Here again is how this ancient wisdom aligns with modern discoveries:
Anger and the Liver (Wood Element)
Taoist Wisdom: The liver is the seat of anger, frustration, and resentment, and is the organ that stores our blood. When these emotions are not expressed healthily, Qi (our vital energy) stagnates. This affects blood flow, decision-making, and vision—both literal and metaphorical.
Scientific Insight: Chronic anger activates the sympathetic nervous system, increasing adrenaline and cortisol. These stress hormones impair liver detoxification pathways, disrupt bile flow, and congest the hepatic system. In psychosomatic medicine, unresolved anger is often linked to migraines, hormonal imbalances, and digestive issues—all governed by liver-associated pathways. Functional medicine confirms: a stagnant liver equals a congested life path.
Grief and the Lungs (Metal Element)
Taoist Wisdom: Grief contracts the lungs, limiting breath and life force. It weakens our boundaries and makes us vulnerable to fatigue and sadness. When the lungs are depleted, the skin (also governed by metal) becomes dry and life becomes harder to “breathe in.”
Scientific Insight: Prolonged grief suppresses immune function, especially natural killer cells in the lungs. It alters breathing patterns, leading to shallow respiration and reduced oxygenation. Trauma studies show grief often leads to physical chest tightness and respiratory dysfunction—hence the expression, “heartache” or “I can’t breathe through this pain.” Grief literally constricts the flow of breath, life, and resilience.
Fear and the Kidneys (Water Element)
Taoist Wisdom: The kidneys hold fear. Chronic fear drains the Jing (vital essence), leading to burnout, adrenal fatigue, and loss of willpower. This affects our ability to adapt, trust, and feel grounded.
Scientific Insight: The kidneys and adrenals regulate the fight-or-flight response. Constant fear floods the system with cortisol, depleting minerals, disrupting electrolyte balance, and exhausting the HPA axis. This contributes to chronic fatigue, anxiety, and insomnia. TCM knew long ago what endocrine science is only recently proving: fear depletes our core reserves and shortens lifespan.
Worry and the Spleen (Earth Element)
Taoist Wisdom: Overthinking and worry weaken the spleen, impairing digestion and nutrient assimilation. This leads to fatigue, muscle weakness, and obsessive rumination.
Scientific Insight: The gut-brain axis shows that excessive mental activity disrupts the vagus nerve and slows digestive motility. Chronic worry increases inflammation in the gut lining, contributing to leaky gut, malabsorption, and immune dysregulation. Psychology calls it “neuroticism,” but energetically, it’s spleen depletion.
Sadness and the Heart (Fire Element)
Taoist Wisdom: The heart stores joy but also processes sadness. When overwhelmed by sorrow, the Shen (spirit) scatters. This can show up as restlessness, insomnia, or emotional numbness.
Scientific Insight: The heart is more than a pump—it’s an electromagnetic command center. Emotional pain alters heart rate variability (HRV), which directly correlates with emotional regulation, resilience, and longevity. Heartbreak can literally cause “broken heart syndrome,” a real medical condition (Takotsubo cardiomyopathy). The ancients called it spirit loss—now we call it cardiac shock.
They knew.
Not because they had microscopes, but because they had perception—refined, attuned, intuitive perception.
They listened to the body’s whispers before they became screams.
They mapped energy before it became matter.
They treated the cause, not just the chemical result.
And now, science is confirming what Taoist, Ayurvedic, and shamanic systems have always said: You cannot separate the body from emotion. You cannot treat symptoms without tracing the stories that created them.
True healing is multidimensional.
The future of medicine is not new. It is ancient wisdom, rediscovered through the lens of quantum biology and psychoneuroimmunology.
Our bodies are not mechanical objects to be fixed, but dynamic energy systems woven into the fabric of the cosmos. The Taoist Inner Alchemy system reveals that physical health, emotional well-being, and spiritual expansion are not separate goals—they are concentric ripples of the same unified field.
Every organ is a consciousness. Every meridian is a communication channel. Each emotion, a frequency signature that either nourishes or disrupts the system.
• The lungs hold grief, and when unprocessed, they restrict not only breath but inspiration.
• The liver stores anger and controls the free flow of Qi; when stagnant, it constricts growth, vision, and direction.
• The heart processes joy, not merely pumping blood but regulating the rhythm of our spirit’s expression.
• The kidneys embody fear, governing our roots, our will, our capacity to adapt and regenerate.
• The spleen houses worry, digesting not just food, but thoughts and life experiences.
The Taoist path does not treat symptoms—it transmutes frequencies.
It invites us to alchemize our emotions rather than suppress them, circulate energy rather than trap it, and harmonize with solar, lunar, and planetary energies rather than battle them.
This is not ancient mysticism—it’s quantum medicine. It reminds us that the microcosmic orbit within us mirrors the celestial rhythms above. That healing is a return to harmony—with self, Source, and all of nature.
In this framework, supplements can assist, but they cannot replace the inner cultivation of energy, emotional digestion, and spiritual alignment.
Healing isn’t adding—it’s integrating.
It’s feeling to transform.
It’s restoring the divine conversation between body, mind, and spirit.
Thanks to Mantak Chia for this chart, to all the ancient traditions, to Donna Eden for distilling this so simply and to Carey George for these explanations.
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