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Stress and Liver Chi Stagnation: What It Is and How to Bring the Flow of Chi Energy Back Into Balance

April 11, 2023 phyto5.us
Flow of chi energy represented by green undulating waves

Liver chi stagnation is a syndrome(1) of the buildup of emotional pressure. It manifests outwardly not just through emotional expression but via physical symptoms as well. Traditional Chinese medicine understands liver chi stagnation in terms of vital energy.

What is vitally important is that we become aware of stress in our lives and learn ways to manage and prevent it otherwise this syndrome can deteriorate into still other syndromes and finally degenerate into chronic illnesses.

The quantum energetic Wood element line of skincare by PHYTO5 is formulated to support your vital energy flow and the most concentrated effect can be found in Wood Phyt’Ether serum for skin, body, scalp and emotions.

In a previous blog entitled, “How the Liver is Directly Involved in Energy Flow, Emotional Balance and Life Planning According to Traditional Chinese Medicine,” we said:

“In traditional Chinese medicine one of the principal roles of the liver, the organ associated with the Wood element and energetic Spring, is to help chi (vital energy) and emotions flow smoothly throughout body and mind. Its physiological function is to dynamically bring smoothness to the flow of chi. If it doesn’t, liver stagnates causing mental, emotional and physical problems.”

And we further explained:

“Liver chi stagnation may also lead to overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, elevated cortisol levels and higher stress levels, and these, in turn, compromise the immune system.”

There are many types of stress. In addition to heart pounding, shallow breathing, forehead sweating stress, sinking into more volatile emotional and darkly depressive states are also forms of stress equated with liver chi stagnation.

“To Chinese medicine, these states into which people get themselves were described over 3,000 years ago. We have just invented new ways to reach them.”
— Jonathan Nigel Clogstoun-Willmott in Qi Stagnation Signs of Stress: Ancient Chinese Secrets–The Way to Master Stress

In the body, stagnant chi energy for many people though not all, causes a sensation of fullness—a feeling of swelling, distention, stuffiness and being blocked up.

As the pressure of stress builds up, the signs of liver chi stagnation may include a number of the following physical and corresponding emotional symptoms:

  • The Adam’s apple seems to want to push up into the mouth. You have the urge to swallow. The throat tightens and your voice feels strangled. Emotionally speaking this means you feel stuck, challenged to express yourself both generally and creatively. You feel challenged to handle conflicts in a positive way.

  • Your bladder feels full accompanied by a sudden urge to urinate. The emotion is that of feeling ‘pissed off.’ The rectum tightens creating the urge to pass a stool. You feel damn angry. You lash out.

  • For women, the breasts feel swollen similar to how they feel pre-menses. The woman cannot offer her innate nurturing compassion to others.

  • Breathing feels tight and more labored. Your nose may feel narrower on one or both sides. Emotionally, you feel claustrophobic. You want to get away, run away. You’ve lost your confidence.

  • The ears feel blocked as if you are in a fast ascending elevator. The pressure of stress is so severe you will not or cannot hear truth. In denial, you refuse to hear what you need to hear.

  • Your eyes feel larger and you need to blink more. This also translates into a lack of clear vision or purpose in life. You “cannot see the forest for the trees.”

  • The forehead feels pressured and squeezed as if you’re trying to force something from it. Your third eye chakra is blocked. You’re stuck in your head and your calculating, rationalizing ego mind.

  • Your intestines feel tight and you get cramping. And as the intestines are located in both the sacral and solar plexus emotional regions of the body, you feel angry, frustrated, irritable. You may even experience mood swings and feel depressed and negative. Your creativity is blocked.

  • The heart pounds as if it’s too large. You feel constricted, unable to make decisions. You can’t give love or receive it. The emotion of gripping fear or panic ensues. You feel stuck. You want to flee, to get away. 

  • Your jaws stiffen, your shoulders tighten and your limbs feel rigid. Your hands are either too hot or too cold. This also translates into an attitude of inflexibility. It’s “your way or the highway” and you leave no room to learn something new.

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One way to begin to resolve these stresses before they evolve into something bigger is to tackle what is obvious and more tangible through the simple vehicles like 1) breathing, 2) eating, 3) drinking, 4) exercising, and 5) slowing down. Take care of yourself on this base level and the benefits you derive will tend to cascade into the less visible emotional and energetic levels.

Breathing

In our previous blog entitled, “Six Breaths a Minute to Slow Aging and Its Causes,” we discuss a very simple breathing technique anyone can do to live better and in greater health and ultimately reduce the body’s negative response to stress. (Premature aging is often caused by the ill effects of stress when we are unprepared to respond resiliently to it.) Right breathing, in particular, delivers much required nourishing oxygen to all parts of the body including the Wood element’s organ, the liver. 

If you’re really intrigued with learning different breathing techniques, look into the pranayama techniques of yoga.

Eating and Drinking

Green is the 5-element color for the Spring energetic season, the Wood element and the color of plants that begin to sprout in Spring. It's also the color of the food we should consume during the season.

Consuming green foods, especially during energetic Spring, will support your vital energy flow and not just liver but also gall bladder balance.

Green produce, especially when fresh, is imbued with solar energy and light. When you eat green whether it’s spinach, broccoli, green apples, or kiwi, you’re actually also consuming the light they absorbed while growing to energize the body and stimulate your vital energy flow. 

Drink green juices made of leafy greens, cucumber and a bit of green apple. Simply by drinking no more than one ounce of wheatgrass juice, you’ll derive enormous cleansing and balancing health benefits.

Many believe that one green smoothie a day will significantly improve your health. The entire smoothie doesn’t have to be made from green ingredients to be a green smoothie. Just add chlorophyll-rich foods to your smoothies like barley grass, chlorella, spirulina, blue green algae, ceremonial grade matcha green tea, parsley, kale or spinach.

Eat green bitters like rye, romaine, asparagus, endive and dandelion greens. They improve digestion, help to alleviate springtime allergies and balance the liver.

Drink dandelion tea. It’s the celebrated liver cleanse tea. Wash the dandelions, snip off the flowers, immerse in hot water and steep for 15 minutes. Or drink hot mint tea to soothe the liver's chi energy.

Slow down with conscious breathing such as the “six breaths a minute” technique mentioned above immediately helps us to slow down and relax the body so that vital energy may flow more freely.

Slowing down doesn’t mean kicking back on the couch and watching television as your only means of relaxation. The Japanese practice called shinrin-yoku or forest bathing can be an exceptionally beneficial practice for melting the effects of stress away, almost immediately.

Surrounding yourself with negative ions which naturally occur in nature will also uplift mind, emotions, body and spirit. For negative ion sources and how to enjoy them, read our viral blog entitled, “8 Ways to Expose Yourself to Negative Ions,” here.(2)

Essentially, participating in the more yin energy oriented activities in nature such as walking meditation, sitting on a park bench and taking in the sights around you, sunbathing or enjoying the feeling of a breeze as it blows across your skin and body are simple exercises you can take pleasure in to reduce an adverse response to stress and support your liver chi.

Finally, by ensuring the routine of your Circadian Rhythm or Cycle—the natural, internal process that regulates the sleep–wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours—you will support the systems, fluids and organs of your body, including the liver and vital energy, to function at their best.

Shut down your computer and stop consulting your smartphone at least three hours before you go to sleep. Establish a routine of going to bed and waking up at roughly the same times every day. If you have trouble getting to sleep or sleeping through the night, it is possible your body is deficient in melatonin and you need to reestablish a healthy Circadian Rhythm.

…

Endnotes:

  1. A syndrome is defined as a group of symptoms which consistently occur together. 

…


Sources:

Clogstoun-Willmott, Jonathan Nigel. Qi Stagnation - Signs of Stress: Putting Chinese Medicine Into English this Book Explains Stress from Its Earliest Appearance Right Through to Severe. United Kingdom, Frame of Mind Publishing, 2013.

In Holistic Lifestyle Tips Tags Liver

How the Liver is Directly Involved in Energy Flow, Emotional Balance and Life Planning According to Traditional Chinese Medicine

March 8, 2022 phyto5.us
A beautiful Asian woman sits with a vase of white flowers and green leaves

In traditional Chinese medicine one of the principal roles of the liver, the organ associated with the Wood element and energetic Spring, is to help chi (vital energy) and emotions flow smoothly throughout body and mind. Its physiological function is to dynamically bring smoothness to the flow of chi. If it doesn’t, liver stagnates causing mental, emotional and physical problems.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural bxeauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique holistic beauty tips and offers.

Thank you!

In additional to controlling free flow of vital energy, its functions include storing nutrients, governing detoxification and regulating the blood. It is related to vision (both literally and figuratively), the eyes, tendons, energetic and emotional ups and downs as well as the ability to make major decisions.

The liver is our body’s unsung hero. It works very hard to keep us healthy by getting rid of what we don’t need. It’s tasked with filtering everything we eat and drink including any pharmaceuticals we take.

“Liver symbolically represents choice and the execution of one’s life plan, vision, planning and action. In traditional Chinese medicine it gives the capacity for being goal oriented and resolute…” —Sandra K. Anderson in The Practice of Shiatsu

“Because the Wood element is associated with self-expression, assertiveness is a key aspect of healthy Wood. A person who is timid and shy is not able to engage in self-expression. Someone who is overly assertive, to the point of being aggressive, is out of balance to the other extreme.” —Sandra K. Anderson in The Practice of Shiatsu


Liver stores the blood giving us the fortitude to make decisions and feel supported. Liver blood deficiency will often show up as stagnancy in the form of eye problems, fatigue and lack of luster and color in the hair and nails.

Liver’s mission to elegantly flow chi energy throughout the body is actually characteristic of Wood’s tendency to grow and flourish. Wood represents new life and in the body the Wood element is responsible for action and expression of self as well as the smooth flow of chi.

Anger, frustration, anxiety and restlessness are the emotions associated with Wood and an out-of-balance Wood type.

“The color green correlates significantly to the Wood element’s emotional relationship with its main organs, the liver and gallbladder. You may have heard people say, ‘He’s “green with envy,” or ‘She’s “green” with anger!’” —Susan Levy, D.C. in Your Body Can Talk: How to Use Simple Muscle Testing for Health and Well Being

Traditional Chinese Medicine tells us when emotions remain unexpressed, repressed, prolonged and not brought to balance this toxicity of emotion has the very real potential to damage our health.

Excessive irritability, restlessness and anger can negatively impact the liver resulting in conditions like menstrual pain, headache, redness of face and eyes, dizziness, and dry mouth. An out-of-balance liver may also result in stormy moods.

Liver chi stagnation may also lead to overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, elevated cortisol levels and higher stress levels, and these, in turn, compromise the immune system.

Learn how to keep your vital energy balanced. Your vital energy always come first. It’s the fundamental generator of the body and of all your body’s other functions. Read how Wood is the energy of the energy in our blog, “Describing the Wood Type Personality…” here.

Ways to help keep Wood energy, emotions and liver balanced:

  • Use the Wood line of skin and hair care by PHYTO5; it’s quantum energetic and works on the level of not just skin, but vital energy and emotions. If you can choose only one product of the line, begin with Wood Phyt’Ether serum which is the most potent in the line. Learn more about Wood Phyt’Ether here.

  • Understand traditional Chinese medicine’s Wood element and its characteristics. It can help you to make balanced choices in your life and to live in harmony with Wood.

  • Work to keep your chakras balanced. They are powerhouses of vital energy. Balancing the seven chakras is essential to beautiful wellness and vitality.

  • Stay active through exercise. Balanced Wood enjoys being physically active.

  • To support and respect the liver, refrain from eating two to three hours before sleep. Late night eating causes the liver to stagnate preventing it from doing its detoxifying work and preventing our bodies from repairing themselves at night. 

  • Keep in mind that overeating puts undue pressure on both liver and gallbladder. Do your best to stop eating when you feel 80% full.

  • You can support the liver by consuming whole grains like brown rice, barley, millet, quinoa, spelt, kamut, oats and wheat berries. Since crackers, bread, bagels, and cereals are baked and dry, they are not conducive to optimum liver function.

  • Eat leafy greens,* fresh herbs and berries which help to build liver blood.

  • Journal to get your angry emotions out.

  • Practice meditation which helps to keep emotions balanced, especially emotions of anger and restlessness.

  • Learn to let go, forgive and accept what is. Practice appreciation.

  • Learn to be assertive, not angry. Learn to be flexible, not rigid.

“The liver function is considered to be the grand architect for our vision of the future. The liver is the center of strategic planning. The gallbladder is thought to be the center of our ability to make decisions and judge wisely. From the functions of the liver and the gallbladder, we can plan and choose–we combine new future possibilities with the wisdom of the past and, as a result, are able to see the clear and appropriate course to take.” —Jennifer Dubowsky, LAc.

#####

Endnotes:

* bok choy, carrot tops, collards, daikon tops, dandelion greens, kale, leek, lettuces, mustard greens, nappa cabbage, radish greens, turnip tops, watercress

Press, Tsinghua University. Traditional Chinese Medicine: Theory and Principles. Germany, De Gruyter, 2015.Levy, Susan, and Lehr, Carol.

Levy, D.C. Susan. Your Body Can Talk: How to Use Simple Muscle Testing for Health and Well Being. United States, Kalindi Press, 2013.

Anderson, Sandra K. The Practice of Shiatsu. Malawi, Mosby Elsevier, 2007.

Stiles, Kg. Chinese Medicine Guidebook Essential Oils to Balance the Wood Element and Organ Meridians. N.p., Draft2Digital, 2020.

Image courtesy of Dziana Hazanbekeva at Pexels

In Holistic Lifestyle Tips Tags Wood Element, Liver
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