by Dr. Josh Axe
Similarly, early practitioners of Ayurveda believed that the main cause of emotional imbalance is the inability to process emotions effectively. The word ama refers to toxic sludge that clogs and poisons your system. If food moves too slowly through your body, it causes ama; if negative emotions sit in your heart and brain, they do the same. Depression, anger, and anxiety are emotional ama—and ancient Ayurvedic practitioners understood that it was important to face those emotions head on to reduce their intensity.
We’d all rather avoid difficult feelings, but when we ignore, suppress, or numb our suffering, it doesn’t go away; it grows—and spills over in ways that affect our ability to function in the world. A number of studies show that suppressing your emotions can affect your body and mind. In one, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that people who scored highest on a standard scale of emotional suppression had a 70 percent greater chance of dying from cancer in the ensuing twelve years—and a 35 percent greater risk of dying prematurely from any cause—than those who were least likely to inhibit their emotions.6 Those who suppressed anger were particularly vulnerable.
The study provides support for what TCM has long theorized about cancer: that it is caused in part by emotions that get stuck in a particular organ. According to TCM, cancer in the left breast often stems from giving too much of yourself to others, which our culture encourages women to do, even though it is depleting; cancer in the right breast can stem from yin deficiency, which can, in some women, be caused by an internal struggle or discomfort with an aspect of their feminine side. Ovarian cancer can come from shame regarding sexuality, especially in those who are (or have been) sexually abused. The emotional cause of lung and colon cancer is clinging to the past and living in a state of grief, shame, or guilt. In prostate cancer, kidney yang is stagnant, a condition caused by fear. One common fear—fear of failure—makes you feel stuck, unexcited, and unfulfilled, and that emotional sense of being stuck plays out in your body, slowing the movement of blood and qi to the prostate; eventually, it leads to mutations in cells. Cancer is almost always linked to the liver, which is responsible for the movement of blood, as well as the lungs, which promote the flow of qi. So if you want to prevent and fight cancer, you need to consume herbs and foods that move qi and blood. Some examples are turmeric, cilantro, fennel, cayenne, onions, garlic, cabbage, and broccoli. At the same time, you need to make an effort to bolster healthy, qi- and blood-moving emotions, like forgiveness, faith, hope, love, joy, and optimism.
Lack of forgiveness, or holding a grudge, is one of the most damaging—and carcinogenic—emotions you can experience. This toxic combination of resentment and rumination over past hurts or insults affects the two systems that are responsible for fighting cancer. Resentment, like anger, affects the detoxification system (the liver and gallbladder), and living in the past affects the immune system (the lungs and colon).
Emotions are incorporated into TCM’s five elements theory as well. Identifying your dominant element(s)—if you haven’t done so yet, take the quiz in chapter 3—can help you understand which negative emotions you are most likely to be overwhelmed by, along with the emotions that can counteract their ill effects. Check out this chart to get some insight into your particular emotional strengths and weaknesses.
Element: Wood
Vulnerable to…: anger, guilt, frustration, rage
Counteract with…: hope, faith, optimism, creativity
Element: Earth
Vulnerable to…: worry, low self-worth, discouragement
Counteract with…: happiness, harmony, security, support
Element: Fire
Vulnerable to…: anxiety, depression, loneliness, jealousy
Counteract with…: joy, love, gratitude, passion
Element: Water
Vulnerable to…: fear, exhaustion, inadequacy
Counteract with…: peace, self-confidence, wisdom
Element: Metal
Vulnerable to…: grief, hurt, regret, judging, shame
Counteract with…: cheerfulness, humility, forgiveness
Just as physical pain is a sign there’s something wrong with your body and you need to uncover the root cause so you can heal it, emotional pain is your cue to slow down, identify the underlying problem, and do what you need to do to cope with it. Yes, it can be difficult to face your issues. That’s why so many people numb their fear, anxiety, and sadness with drugs, alcohol, technology, shopping, or work. But none of those things are effective in the long run. In fact, they’re flimsy emotional Band-Aids, which allow the underlying emotional problems to fester—and usually create new challenges of their own.
The key to rooting out emotional problems is to deal with them head on. There’s no one single approach that works for everyone. But I’ve found that the following five-step process can be incredibly effective for helping people understand what’s happening to them emotionally—and overcome it. My friend Dr. Caroline Leaf, a neuropsychologist who has written a number of books, including Switch on Your Brain, created this approach, and it dovetails with ancient emotional philosophies. When I’m feeling stuck in my own life, this is my go-to strategy to get back on track—and I highly recommend you try it, too:
1. Discover the source of the trauma, toxic thought, or memory. Keeping a journal and writing about your thoughts and emotions can help, as can meditation and prayer. Tracing the source of your pain is the first step toward acknowledging it and easing its grip on your life.
2. Connect with a pastor, mentor, trained emotional coach, psychologist, or mental health professional who can serve as a wise guide and sounding board as you face your past hurts or toxic emotions and work through them.
3. Accept what happened by acknowledging it aloud to yourself or your mentor or therapist. You could say, “I was bullied” or “I was abused” or “I was told I wasn’t smart.” Speaking the truth out loud allows you to both face your pain and defuse its power. In fact, researchers at UCLA discovered that naming an emotion—sadness, anger, jealousy, resentment—actually calms the amygdala, the brain’s fear center, which is often activated when you’re experiencing negative emotions.7
4. Choose to use your challenges for good. For instance, if you were bullied you can volunteer for an organization that fights bullying or speak out against bullying on social media. If you were told you weren’t smart, you could tutor children with learning issues or write an article about your experience that might help others. By using your trauma for good, you not only transform your own suffering but also become a world-changer who can encourage, inspire, and aid those who struggle with the same issue.
5. Create daily habits that build positive emotions, like faith, joy, and gratitude. Find the way that works best for you. Some techniques that I often recommend—and use in my own life—include positive affirmations, prayer, meditation, reading personal growth or spiritual growth books, spending time with supportive friends and family, and practicing gratitude.
How age-old emotional techniques can help you get—and stay—well
Adopting habits to help you deal with emotions doesn’t mean you should never feel bad or ignore sadness, pain, or fear. Quite the opposite. It’s natural to feel out of sorts or overwhelmed at times; we all experience an array of negative emotions every day. The key is to recognize the ones that are most likely to trip you up and face them, because the longer they linger, the more likely they are to become toxic. There are a number of time-tested mind-body practices that can help you stay on top of your feelings. And here’s the best news of all: You don’t need a prescription in order to add these life-changing practices to your daily routine. They don’t cost a dime. They’re risk free. And you have the power to adopt them right now.
The following ancient techniques are specifically designed to help you consciously recognize when you’ve become stuck in negativity, and they give you the tools you need to restore your emotional equilibrium so your feelings don’t derail your health.
Meditation. This practice is truly ancient. Its roots in Judaism and India extend back six thousand years. It has lasted through the ages and is astoundingly popular in the United States today for one reason: It actually changes the structure of your brain, training it to become not only more aware of your moment-by-moment feelings, but also to be more resilient and calm. At its core, meditation involves letting your thoughts rest on a single point of focus—your breath, for instance, or a word like love. When your focus drifts, acknowledge it, then return your mind, without judgment, to your breath. Practicing this basic type of meditation can make you more adept at recognizing emotions as they come up. It also helps you understand a vital concept: Your emotions aren’t you—they’re passing feelings that come and go like clouds in the sky. That simple but profound notion helps loosen the grip of toxic emotions. A slightly different version of the practice, known as loving-kindness meditation, which was described in the Bible and has roots in Buddhism and Judaism, goes even further by actively shifting the mind from fear, anxiety, irritation, or anger to love, empathy, and compassion. By doing so, loving-kindness meditation not only protects you from toxic emotions, it also helps you be a better spouse, parent, partner, friend, and colleague. In a landmark study, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had a group of working adults practice loving-kindness meditation five days a week for seven weeks. At the end, the study found that the meditation group experienced increased love, joy, contentment, and gratitude, and also felt a greater sense of purpose in life, increased social support, and decreased illness symptoms.8 Other research has shown that meditating on compassion and kindness is linked to an increase in positive social behaviors, like generosity.9 Sound appealing? Here’s how to do it: Sit comfortably in a quiet place, close your eyes, and bring your awareness to your breath for a few inhales and exhales. Once you feel settled, think of someone who loves—or loved—you unconditionally. Feel the sensation of their love in your heart and breathe it in. Visualize that love flowing throughout your whole body, circulating just like blood and qi. Allow yourself to marinate in that feeling for at least ten breaths. Then, imagine sending that feeling to someone else. Hold on to an image of that person, and repeat in your mind, “May you be safe, may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be at peace.” When I do this practice, I meditate on how I can be more loving, often with a help of a verse from the Bible. I ask God to fill my heart with his love, and I think about how I can be a more loving spouse, parent, business partner, and friend. Even five minutes a day fills me with a sense of calm and helps me feel more connected to the people I love. Not only can loving-kindness meditation increase your equanimity, over time it will also decrease the intensity of chronic, harmful emotions and amplify the healing feelings of compassion, kindness, and love.
Spiritual triathlon. I do this trio of ancient practices every day. It centers me, grounds me, gives me hope, and helps me consciously think about—and appreciate—the good things in my life. The spiritual triathlon was a cornerstone of my mom’s anticancer plan, and I routinely recommend it to patients, friends, and family. My spiritual triathlon begins with ten minutes of gratitude: writing down or just thinking about things I’m grateful for. Spending time in gratefulness helps me savor the good things in my life and focus less on negative emotions. What’s more, studies show it can enhance your physical and psychological health, boost your happiness and life satisfaction, and protect you from materialism and burnout.10 Next, I do ten minutes of Bible reading. I like to read scripture because the Bible’s ancient wisdom guides me and helps me live in accordance with my values and beliefs. But you can choose your own form of spiritual reading—any text that makes you think about living a life of purpose and depth will do the trick. Having purpose in life is more than just a new age concept, by the way. It integrates who you are as a human being with what you do in your everyday life—and it gives you a reason to get out of bed in the morning. What’s more, a feeling of purpose is fundamental to happiness, fulfillment, passion, productivity, and overall health. For a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open, researchers from the University of Michigan measured sense of purpose in seven thousand people over the age of fifty. Over the ensuing four years, those with the greatest sense of purpose were less likely to develop heart, circulatory, and blood conditions, and were significantly less likely to die of any cause.11 The final leg of my spiritual triathlon is ten minutes of prayer, a practice that helps me find peace no matter what is happening in my life. Research shows it can reduce stress,12 and people who pray are less likely to experience worry, fear, self-consciousness, and social anxiety, according to research published in the journal Sociology of Religion.13 Meditation works, too, as does a walk in the woods. Choose the practice that most consistently grounds you, helps you feel connected to something greater than yourself, and counterbalances the daily onslaught of stress.
Affirmations. You might recall that one of the things I asked Julia, who was diagnosed with cancer, to do was recite daily affirmations. The practice has been lampooned over the years, but it continues to be widely used because it is an effective way to shore up your private image of yourself, which has a number of positive effects. Research in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, for instance, found that self-affirmation helps you structure information and focus on the big picture.14 And other research has shown that self-affirmations restore your sense of competence when it has been rocked in some way (whether you’ve lost your job, been diagnosed with cancer or another scary disease, or are in the midst of a divorce). What’s more, sedentary people who practice self-affirmations are more likely to begin exercising.15 To use affirmations to reverse negative thought patterns, first write down the negative messages you’re sending yourself—“I am going to die of this disease” or “I’m not going to be able to afford my mortgage.” Then write a powerful statement that counteracts it, like “I’m going to live a long, vibrant life” or “I’m going to find a lucrative job that’s better suited to me than my last one.” Repeat the affirmation aloud for three minutes in the morning and at night.
Random acts of kindness. As Lao Tzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher, said, “Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” What we now know is that kindness boosts happiness and optimism, bolsters your self-esteem, supports your immune system, improves the health of your heart, and promotes healthy aging. For instance, a study published in the Journal of Social Psychology found that performing small kindnesses for seven days increased study participants’ happiness—and the more kind acts they performed, the greater the boost.16 Kindness doesn’t have to be expensive, time-consuming, or involved. It can include holding the door for someone, complimenting a stranger, picking up litter in your neighborhood, paying for someone’s coffee, mowing your elderly neighbor’s lawn, or writing a letter to a mentor or friend expressing your gratitude for how they’ve positively influenced your life. Research shows that being kind feels good because it affects a range of mood-related hormones, bolstering oxytocin, the love hormone, and serotonin, a happiness-related chemical, while decreasing cortisol, the stress hormone. Even better: Kindness is contagious. Merely witnessing an act of kindness can make you happy—and more likely to do something kind yourself.
Protecting yourself from illness, and fighting deadly diseases, requires more than just physical medicine. It requires emotional medicine. The ancients knew this. And now that you understand why your emotional health is inseparable from your physical health, I hope you can appreciate the benefits of their age-old emotional remedies, too. Integrating these strategies into your own life will give you something no pill ever can: an increased sense of happiness, peace, and hope that not only enhances your day-to-day well-being, but also safeguards and supports your health.
CHAPTER 10
Ancient Therapies and Lifestyle Medicine for Modern Health Woes
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br /> Deepening Your Mind-Body Connection
Several years ago, a friend of mine confessed to me that he was having trouble with erectile dysfunction. Colton was only forty and was taking Viagra—and was embarrassed to even bring it up. I reassured him the problem was common, and we began an ongoing conversation about other things he could do to help treat it. His problems, I told him, stemmed from low testosterone, a symptom of low qi and low yang. He was a triathlete, so he got tons of cardiovascular exercise, and he ate mostly raw veggies and a little meat. I suggested he start eating foods that boost testosterone, like ginseng and fenugreek, as well as nuts (brazil nuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds), which support yang; mulberries and goji berries, which are good for stimulating qi; and fish, red meat, liver, bone broth, healthy fats, and cooked vegetables, all of which can build qi.
But I also recommended a number of other treatments that I was certain would help turn his problem around. The first was acupuncture. It’s one of the best cures for releasing blocked qi and restoring healthy energy levels—and research shows it can be helpful for erectile dysfunction. One placebo-controlled trial published in the International Journal of Impotence Research found that nearly two-thirds of patients receiving acupuncture improved significantly, compared to 9 percent in the placebo group.1
I also suggested he start lifting heavy weights two to three times a week, doing squats, deadlifts, rows, pull-ups, bench press, shoulder press, and planks. While aerobic exercise is wonderful for the cardiovascular system, the best way to build yang (testosterone) is a combination of strength training and short bursts of cardio—a technique called high-intensity interval training (HIIT). In addition, I recommended that he sit in front of an infrared light first thing in the morning and just after sunset to help his body get on a healthy circadian rhythm. Syncing his body with healthy, natural rhythms would also help restore qi and yang. When I saw him again several months later, he was happy to report that he was about 70 percent better, and well on his way to feeling fully himself again—all without Viagra or any other prescription medications.