Law of Five Elements, emotions *

In Chinese medicine, each of the five elements is associated with a different feeling. These five main emotions directly impact the organs associated with that element.
Wood is connected with Anger and Anger is elevated when the two organs that represent Wood element are not well. We see this reverse-causative relationship with all five main emotions:

• Anger hurts Liver & Gallbladder (Wood)
• Lack of Joy hurts Heart & Small Intestine and Pericardium & Tripple Heater (Fire)
• Worry injures Spleen & Stomach (Earth)
• Sadness / Grief injure Lung & Large Intestine (Metal) and
• Fear injures Kidney & Bladder

The relationship we observe between these feelings and the organs attached to the corresponding element is a two way relationship. In case of Wood, anger injures Liver and/or Gallbladder and also, when Liver and/or Gallbladder are deficient, the person is more likely to display elevated levels of anger.

Same goes for each element: the stronger the fear, the weaker are Kidney and/or Bladder...

We all had some anecdotal evidence of these relationships - maybe you observed an alcoholic and how common was anger in a daily life of a person who likely has a weak Liver or maybe you remember getting really scarred when you were young and wetting your pants. Have you ever watched someone sob? You probably observed that they struggled for breath as Sadness weakens Lung and/or Large Intestine.

This relationship of organs and emotions is used in Chinese medicine to help diagnose the conditions of organs and plan the appropriate treatment. But you should also consider that if there is a prevailing feeling in your daily life, it will have an impact on it's corresponding organ(s). Or an organ in distress should point to you that you are engaging too much in one of the five main feelings...