Sounds menacing, doesn't it?

In Chinese Medicine, each meridian pair is associated with an emotion which arises out of its function.

Traditionally it goes like this:

Lung/Large Intestine: Grief

Stomach/Spleen: Empathy

Heart/Small Intestine & Heart Protector/Triple Heater (they go together .. totally different subject): Joy

Liver/Gall Bladder: Anger

Bladder/Kidney: Fear

Seems clear cut enough, until you ponder the idea that there are different experiences of fear, and here's where it gets interesting.

Bladder/Kidney fear is based on the idea that these meridians govern the fight-or-flight mechanism... Kidney, through its association with the adrenal glands, and Bladder being connected to the central nervous system. A balanced Water element (the element governing the BL/KD pair) allows one the impetus to act quickly and courageously in a threatening situation, and then recover and return to a relaxed state.

Imbalanced Water takes the form of perpetual anxiety, as well as phobias, and irrational fears of the future. This becomes taxing in the long run, as Kidney energy (which is our core energy) gets depleted, leading to chronic exhaustion.

But there are other forms of fear that can be more appropriately placed with other elements.

Lung/Large Intestine (Metal): Metal deals with details, and, as mentioned above, grief. Metal fear is an unwillingness to let go, and I would even say perfectionism. It's about trust .. trust that we we have to offer is good enough and that we can release what we no longer need: stuff, ideas, people, the breath we're holding. And trust that, like the breath, what we do need will always be available to us.

Liver/Gall Bladder (Wood): The Wood element, primarily the Gall Bladder, governs how our energy is used. (Liver stored energy in the form of glycogen, the GB determines where it should go). So Wood fear manifests as the inability to make decisions, and second-guessing.

Heart/Small Intestine & Heart Protector/Triple Heater (Fire): I had read that the Fire element fear is 'loss of control'. I had to meditate on this on bit, and want to expand on it. In TCM, the Heart is seen as the 'Emperor".. the core of our being (also the house of the Shen.. our Spirit, consciousness, however you choose to describe it). Small Intestine holds the function of assimilation (that whole 'you are what you eat' thing). Heart Protector sounds like what it is.. it protects the heart, the Emperor. And Triple Heater, in addition to many other functions to be written about later, serves as our psychic boundary. So, putting these together, the Fire fear deals with our ability, or lack thereof, to 'allow in'.. whether people's energy or ideas... that we take in to become a part of our own core.

Stomach/Spleen (Earth): It was my encounter with this element that got me thinking about this subject in the first place. In dealing with a client who expressed having some core fear issues, I asked for a little more clarity on that. She said specifically she had a fear of being in her home alone at night. This was one of the example of common Water element phobias. (A brief side note: she had also dealt with childhood sexual abuse, and has also commented often that as an adult, she has trouble 'staying in her body' .. a common response to early life trauma).

Based on that last piece of information, I made the resounding connection with her that her body and her home (and her family of origin) are synonymous, and she had learned early on that these were not places to be trusted. Home, the body and relationships are the province of the Earth element. Insecurity is having a lack of trust in very ground under your feet, as well as feeling uncomfortable in your own skin.

So, there are some overlaps in some of these, for example, vulnerability can be seen as both a Heart and a Lung issue. And relationships with others comes under both Earth and Fire.  But within these are subtleties that can be perceived with closer attention.

But that will be saved for another post!

Other writings you might dig:

Wood v Earth

Five Element Theory - An Intro

Orange is the Color of Presence

"Under heaven, nothing is more soft and yielding than water. Yet for attacking the solid and strong, nothing is better. It has no equal." ~ Tao te Ching

Continuing onto a recent topic about the Water element in Chinese medicine... one in which I left you dangling with suspense, I'm sure, with promises of a post about the psychological/emotional associations.

Water is about flow, purity, depth and power. In our bodies, it's about how well fluid is circulated throughout, how efficiently our internal cooling system is functioning, and about genetic heritage (think flow..).

The tendency of movement for water is to always sink to the lowest point possible. From this comes the capacity to store, providing a reservoir of replenishment, and to root and steady us. But in an imbalanced situation, this downward tendency can be experienced as depression.

The emotional association with Water is fear. Combine with this with its spiritual capacity of Will, and you have the element that gives us the will to live. Being that the meridians and organs governed by Water are the Kidneys and the Bladder, (and in TCM the adrenal glands which sit atop the kidneys are included), we can see that the 'fight or flight' mechanism that kicks in when one's survival is threatened is the healthier expression of this fear. 

From a Zen shiatsu perspective, in which the placement of the meridians on the body describe their function, the Water meridians (especially the Bladder which traverses the entire length of the back of the body) provides impetus (think: "prepare to run") ... as in a force that pushes us forward, like rushing water. A weakened water element may be expressed as a lack of will, while one imbalanced to the other extreme can lead to busy-ness for the sake of busy-ness but without forward movement. 

The book, "Shiatsu: Theory and Practice", says the Bladder meridian governs the back.. the spine, and the physical structure. The Bladder points along the spine communicate most directly with the nervous system, providing an almost instant relaxation response when pressed.

Psychologically, the Bladder meridian gives us determination... our "backbone". But the back also embodies many aspects of ourselves that we repress or put behind us, while presenting a 'false front' to the world. Fear, jealousy, guilt, repression of sexual longings (and in other schools of thought: concerns about money, basic security and survival) all can manifest as back pain and other issues. This baggage can interfere with the forward flow of impetus, as well as lead to the sinking nature of depression and fatigue.

You may be a Water Person if you:

• indulge your imagination
  
• are introspective
• can be honest and blunt, though not necessarily tactful
  
• prefer solitude or privacy over intimacy or socializing
• consider yourself self-sufficient in or out of a relationship
• can rely on deep reserves of energy when needed to plug through a project
• find yourself always with endless tasks to perform and deadlines to meet

You may have a Water Element Imbalance if you:

• tend toward issues with hormones, bones, hair, teeth, hearing, fatigue, bladder or kidney function
• have fears and phobias that feel life-threatening
• work past the point of exhaustion, relying on will and even stimulants to keep going
• or conversely, feel fatigue or exhaustion at the slightest efforts, draining you of will to complete even simple tasks
• tendency toward feeling cold, especially accompanied by low back pain
• crave a salty taste
• have dark circles under the eyes

For a more complete psycho/physio assessment of your element, download this!