Your Heart: Stress, Nourishment and Balance

One of the most fascinating attributes of the Chinese Medicine system is how each organ has physical and mental, emotional, and spiritual and seasonal qualities. Since it is the Hallmark month of love, let's explore the Heart.

The heart season is summer, and heart is considered the most yang: warm, bountiful and abundant. Yang is what is bright, moving, outward, hot, and loud. Yin is what is more inward, still, dark, and cool. The heart is associated with the color red, and with warm seasons, it's resonant flavor is bitter (which is actually the true flavor of chocolate) and it’s paired organ is the small intestine (interestingly, many urinary issues are due to “heart fire” heat descending). The sense organ aligned with the heart is the tongue. Its sound is laughing, and its emotion is joy.

The heart houses what is known as the shen, which can be loosely translated to mean the spirit, consciousness, the mind of the soul. In Classical Chinese Medicine, it is said that the heart is like the meditation room of a Chinese Emperor, quiet, surrounded by nature, sitting high in the mountains and kept away from the disruptions of life. You can see the health of a person’s shen in their complexion and eyes, most notably if they are clear and bright. The heart is in charge of circulation and keeps the tissues well nourished. It is also associated with mental clarity, memory, and strength. The motion of this fire element is upward, like a flame, consequently, many who have this element dominant in their personality have red hair or hair that is curly or spikes upward. The heart is also connected to speech. An imbalance in heart energy can result in stuttering, speaking excitedly, or talking excessively.

A healthy heart energy exudes a sense of joy, fun, enthusiasm, action, warmth, charisma, and fun. These people are the “life of the party,” and love to have a good time with friends and to be the center of attention. When the heart is balanced, sleep is sound and one is well-rested.

On the other hand, when there is an overabundance of fire this can result in restlessness, anxiety, sweating, excitability, and symptoms such as palpitations, irregular heartbeat, insomnia, disturbing dreams, mouth sores, thirst, red face, constipation and dryness. Our shen can easily be disturbed and thus heart energy symptoms prevail under the influence of our personal stress and also that in the world around us. Our daily bombardment with images and talk of the multitude of "threats" to aspects of our life is impactful and quite potentially negative to the heart in particular.

As the fire element is diminished by constant stimulation the effects may emerge as lusterless complexion, low energy or inertia, depression, feeling cold, low libido, and a lack of ability to express warmth, this person may seem cold, frigid, lack drive and be prone to addictive behavior.

How to help your heart stay in balance?

Red foods have been shown to help the heart biochemically; foods such as hawthorn berries, strawberries, cherries, raspberries, tomatoes, watermelon, peppers, and goji berries assist in keeping your heart happy with lycopene and anthocyanin, antioxidants and beneficial vitamins. Other helpful foods include garlic, cayenne, cilantro, basil, magnesium (found in leafy greens, nuts, and soy) and green tea. Also try jujube dates, reishi mushrooms, dong Quai, seaweed and schizandra berries. Activities such as walking, Tai qi, or qi gong will help calm the shen.

It is best not to self-diagnose, so see your healthcare provider to see if those foods are right for you. You don't want to assume you have too much of one element and end up eating the wrong foods. A Chinese medical specialist can give you a proper diagnosis as far as the Five Element theory goes to see which element is dominant in you, and they can treat your condition with acupuncture, herbs and offer advice for beneficial changes in diet and lifestyle.

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