Having a good mental state is about having good feelings and positive thoughts. No matter what is going on around us, we are in control of how we relate to situations outside of us. But there is more to the story…To create great mental health, it’s important to understand that emotions are not only connected with our thoughts, but also with our organs.
Acupuncture is an ancient medicine that originated over 3,000 years ago. The wisdom of the ancients still works today, and we can apply it to our mental health during these stressful times. The ancients identified five major organs and the emotions are associated with each one of them. Similarly in the West, we associate emotions with different organs.
For example, what is the emotion associated with the heart? Think of a Hallmark card on Valentine’s Day. What emotion is associated with the kidneys? Ever heard of someone getting so scared they wet their pants?
That’s right. The emotion associated with the heart is love and the emotion associated with the kidneys is fear. The ancient Chinese also associated the spleen with worry, the lungs with grief and liver with anger. So, our default emotional state has a lot to do with the health of our organs.
Let’s talk about anger and resentment specifically, because these emotions can really inhibit us from feeling joy. If our liver is congested, we might feel stuck in the emotion of anger. In the West, the adjective “bilious” pertains to bile and to a state of being angry or bad-tempered. So, both in the East and West we associate the liver and the fluid it produces, bile, with anger. In clinic I find that when we treat the liver, patients begin to feel less anger and become more relaxed. They feel more joy!
So, when you want to find more joy in life, think about improving your overall health. Eat a diet rich in single ingredient foods: meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts and good fats. Good fats include grass fed butter, tallow, lard, coconut oil and olive oil. Don’t overheat the fats because they will go rancid before they enter your body. Drink lots of water: half your body weight in ounces per day is recommended (max 100 ounces). Finally, avoid processed food and obvious sugars. Eating a good, nutrient rich diet is the foundation for a good mental state full of joy.
At Vital Health, we are experts in helping people solve their health problems. To find the root cause of your health issues, we start with a complete Bio Functional Analysis (BFA). The BFA informs us about what is specifically going on in your body. Then we create a custom program to get you where you want to go. We supply you with the specific whole food nutritional support you need and provide relaxing acupuncture to speed up the healing process. Want more joy? You can come see us at Vital Health!
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