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Feeling Crusty? Crabby? Steamin’ Mad? Your Liver Needs to Cool Off More Than You Do!

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This article is contributed by Elwin Robinson. A cool cat we think has some GREAT ideas and wisdom to share about health. Often around here with think a lot about food as the first line of defense, but we’ve been inspired by Elwin’s work and are happy to be able to share it with you! Love and cool thoughts to your livers…

-The Raw Diva Team

by Elwin Robinson

What is the Root Cause of Anger?

One area of health that’s always fascinated me is the connection between the health of the organs and our emotions. In fact it’s become one of my favourite ‘diagnostic’ tools.  I read the emotions that someone habitually experiences in their facial expressions, posture, use of language, vocal tone and the things they say.  From there I can quite easily see how their organs are functioning, a key factor in their overall health.

Many alternative health practitioners emphasise the importance of recognising the body and mind are connected.  I feel that the connection between our body and our feelings is even more fundamental and important.

The relationship between organs and emotions that I find tends to be highlighted in a particularly obvious way is the connection between anger and jealousy; and the state of the liver. Anger tends to be more socially acceptable for men and jealousy for women, but in reality both sexes can manifest either when the liver is imbalanced, which in practice usually means it’s becomes energetically overheated.

This overheating can be due to a variety of factors, including an excess of toxicity, hybridised sugars, cooked fats and animal protein. It can just be due to the environment being hot, which is why riots often occur during a heat wave.  In fact the liver isn’t particularly keen on any extremes. While the kidneys embody the ‘thrill seeker’ part of us, always looking to our next peak experience, the liver’s motto would be more ‘everything in moderation.’

On the positive side, the liver is the organ which compels us to take action, to do something new, to innovate and to make a decision. Creativity is down to the liver, not just arts and crafts but having the urge to express yourself, or creatively solve a problem.  All artistic endeavours are dependent on the health of the liver, as is the impetus towards sexual expression. Staying power, on the other hand, depends on the kidneys.  I’ve helped many people to regain their ‘mojo’ by tonifying the liver, which means strengthening it.

Not every person with a liver imbalance will manifest feelings of anger or jealously, some people will feel so guilty (another liver emotion) about having these feelings at all that they’ll tend to suppress them and re-channel that emotional energy, which then usually resurfaces in the Lungs as sadness and tears.  If completely suppressed it tends to manifest as physical issues including neck and shoulder pain, headaches and migraines, and eventually more serious diseases, if continually ignored.

Although not every person with a liver imbalance will get angry, every angry person will have a liver imbalance, an overheated liver, which is almost always caused by a lack of Liver Yin energy, from a Taoist perspective.

So from a Taoist perspective the first thing we do is cool the liver. This will reduce or remove many negative emotional states immediately, although occasionally it can cause them to leak out and be released.  If it does it’s important to realise that it’s not the person or situation that’s infuriating us, it’s the state of our liver.  In fact this is an important distinction to make at all times, although it can be little consolation if you’re on the other end of someone’s wrath, to realize it’s their liver that’s causing them to act that way!

Only when we’ve cooled the liver down would we then start cleansing or detoxing the body, otherwise we risk overburdening the liver even more, actually potentially making things worse.  This is a very important distinction that is often ignored or not understood in ‘gung ho’ western health approaches, which often advocate immediately doing very intense cleanses and detoxification programmes.

So how do we cool the liver? My two favourite herbs for this purpose are Schizandra and Bupleurum, both extremely safe and gentle Taoist Tonic Herbs.

Schizandra is extremely gentle, it very subtly but thoroughly strengthens and cleanses the liver without straining it and whilst keeping it energetically cool.  Schizandra also simultaneously has many, many other health benefits, far too numerous to mention here, and is one of my all time, all purpose, completely safe, favourite herbs ever.

Bupleurum on the other hand is solely concerned with the liver, it’s energy is very cold, suitable to cool the liver down quickly, and it has the same effect on the liver as washing up liquid and a scouring pad have on a pan with congealed fat on it: it will get it clean quickly!  However as a result of this fast action it is always combined with other blood building and cleansing herbs, to ensure the toxicity gets out without causing any damage to other eliminative organs on their way out of the body.

All these herbs are available in my ‘Cleanse’ Taoist Tonic Herbal Tea.

Once acute liver heat has been resolved, then we can safely look at other detoxifying products and strategies.  Some of my favourites in terms of being highly effective and safe include:

1 Colonic hydrotherapy

2 Zeolites

3 MSM

4 Chlorella

5 Fresh lemon juice

The liver also dislikes cooked fats, and in fact any toxic substances, so I always recommend to keep them to as much of a minimum as possible, especially while restoring balance to the liver.

When the liver is more balanced life becomes a whole new terrain for the previously easily angered person. For some reason the same triggers that used to infuriate them just don’t seem as important anymore. Life could even seem duller, until they realise that feeling passionate, creative and decisive are so much more preferable to feeling angry.

For more information see:

http://www.lionheartherbs.com/index.php/shop/cleanse

http://www.lionheartherbs.com/index.php/blog/is-your-anger-poisoning-you?

http://www.lionheartherbs.com/index.php/blog/liver-health or contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions