Working on the abdomen

You have most likely heard common expressions such as "It's going to take a while to digest this" or "The gall of him", or perhaps someone being described as "liverish" I have a gut feeling. These are all words and phrases making a connection between our feelings and our organs. While this awareness exists in our language, it has been lost from more scientific approaches to how the body works. The fact is, that by directly touching the organs, people can access and begin to digest stored emotions.

      In life there are many good reasons why we do not have the time or sensitivity to fully feel and process intense emotions as they arise.  Our jobs, the rent, school, and children are just a few things that can demand immediate attention. If we always took the time from these responsibilities to properly care for our emotional bodies it would be hard to maintain a smoothly running life. So as a healthy survival response our bodies turn off, or put these emotions away for processing ‘later'. Very often ‘later' never comes, and these feelings become visceral tensions and blocks. These ‘charges' build up until finally the body cannot function normally and a symptom of disease shows up. 

  If we turn off more and more feelings, then we also stop feeling the positive emotions that correspond with the negative ones, and slowly we may stop feeling all together. This is why so many people walk around feeling numb or depressed. Turning this process around and allowing ourselves the space to start processing these stored up emotions is necessary for true, lasting healing.

     One of the main theories in unwinding the abdomen  is that our organs create and store our emotions. Anger and kindness, for instance, are housed in the liver. Stubbornness and hate are properties of the heart, opposed by the emotions love and joy.  Fear and gentleness are stored in the kidneys, with sadness and courage in the lungs. Overwhelming emotions can affect the quality of the corresponding organ, and conversely, emotions can be triggered by the condition of the organs.  There is this relationship between our emotions and the state of our organs.

The places in our organs where undigested emotions, or charges, exist are places where we stop breathing so that we stop feeling the discomfort there. Eventually, we stop breathing into our bellies and breathe into our chests instead, or we just breathe very shallowly altogether. When you see a baby breathe, you see a big belly rising with each breath. This is our natural, healthy breath. All of the organs are breathing and the blood is flowing smoothly. To heal, you need to directly address undigested emotional charges. The first step is bringing attention to the breath, and learning how to take a deeper, fuller breath. This, in fact, is the foundation to many forms of healing work including yoga.