Koutei Daikei, the most ancient Chinese medical text, mentions something interesting on the relationship between the “Seven Emotions” and the movement of the “Ki.” The seven emotions mean the seven emotional states of joy, anger, distress, thought, grief, fear and surprise. All of them exist in each one of us and under normal conditions none develops into anything troublesome. However, if an unexpected shocking event should occur, or one’s worry should last for an excessively long time beyond his/her natural biological power of control, unwelcome physical problems might follow. Especially those who are not able to handle these problems properly, the situation may deteriorate and end up with serious physical symptoms.

The Movement of the “Ki”:
As long as the “Ki” flows evenly through the body, one feels well and fine. But once this flow is disrupted and the seven emotions lose balance the “Ki” gets lopsided and causes
disorder in the bodily functions. Excessive anger makes the “Ki” rise high as shown by the bristling hair of a cat mentioned in Part I. There is a literal phrase in Japanese to describe the symptom: “Gyakujou” meaning the “Ki” rising to the head. Since anger is related with tension, being excessively busy and tight may lead to anger. Excessive fear makes the “Ki” fall and settle lopsidedly at the bottom. Frightened at an earthquake, for instance, one may lose the ability to keep standing, as the “Ki” has left one’s system. Excessive astonishment makes the “Ki” lose its order. We say in Japanese in such a case that the “Ki” is “tumbling.” Excessive grief makes the “Ki” disappear, as we say in Japanese “My grief is so great that I have lost the will to live (lost the “Ki”). Thus grief reduces our power of resistance and render us susceptible to colds. Excess of thought makes the “Ki” get hard or stiff, settling around the abdomen. In Japanese we describe it by saying the “Ki” is closed off due to excessive thought (Ki ga fusagu). Worrying too much makes the “Ki” shrink up, as we say “Ki wo momu” in Japanese.

Excessive Anger Makes the “Ki” rise:
Here, I will give some clinical instances of these emotional symptoms giving rise to physical problems based on my own experiences of treating many clients.

Not long ago, I went to see one of my patients who had had a slipped disk and was not able to walk. Her husband was helping her use the bathroom, but it took as long as two hours both ways. Her trouble was triggered when she had tried to lift a large desk. But how did it happen? I wondered why it had developed into such a serious case. Asking the patient about her personal lifestyle prior to the unfortunate happening, I came to know that she had been leading an extremely busy life and had to cope with lots of irritating problems. In other words, she had been in an incorrigible state of anger for some time. In fact, this patient had weakness in the kidneys (there is a close relationship between the kidneys and the waist) and had had chronic pain in the back for a long time. Moreover, the chilly northwest wind of June kept her feet very cold. An overall description of her condition can be that her “anger” raised the “Ki” higher and her cold feet pushed the heat upward, thus disrupting the balance of the distribution of the “Ki” in her system. As a consequence, her waist was in a very vulnerable condition and the pain was triggered by an outside impact.

Not a few patients who come to me complaining of pain in the waist mention excessive “anger” and “tension” in their recent past. To put it simply, this process fits into an equation in which the pain in the back equals extreme anger/tension plus weak kidneys/waist.

The treatment of this patient was aimed at lowering her “Ki” and warming up the lower part of her system. Just one session improved her condition and she became able to travel to the bathroom all by herself taking only 15 minutes .