Emotional Balance

A normal, healthy person will experience a range of moods that is reflective of their general emotional balance. Zen, Taoist and Yogic training, as well as many other forms of developmental training, emphasize the value of mastering one’s emotions without suppressing them. It is absolutely appropriate, necessary and healthy to have moods, feelings and emotions. This is to be human. But mood management is a path to success in all avenues of life.The kaleidoscopic shifting of the emotions is a natural response to the cycles of life, and the emotions themselves are the guiding and driving forces of the body.

Recognizing that the body affects the mind and vice versa, the ancient Chinese saw no real distinction between these two aspects of a person. A person must be perceived of as a whole and, further, as a whole in relation to her or his environment.

Shen controls ALL the emotions. If Shen is weak, or distracted by social mores or physical imbalances, the psyche can become addicted to some emotion. When one emotion is emphasized and clung to, the emotional and physical states become imbalanced because Shen has ceased to rule. The imbalanced emotional state controls the person instead, and the whole sequence of emotional change is thrown out of rhythm. The related meridians and the physical conditions are affected, for the mind and body are very closely inter-related. One necessarily affects the other.

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Tonic herbs and formulations have been used for twenty five hundred years to “center” the energy of the organ-systems of the body and with them the emotional balance. Here is a chart of the five emotional spectra according to traditional Asian Taoist theory.

The Five Emotional Spectra