All healing is emotional healing

Jefferson Breland

(5/2024) Last Fall, I wrote about Fall cleaning. Now that Spring is here, one might rightly think, I would write about the more commonly known Spring cleaning.

Well, you are correct. And I know it is the month of May and this Spring will be over soon. I wish to remind you, generally speaking, it is never too late to begin anything.

In this article, I wish to clean up, so to speak, or examine a couple of prevalent beliefs. One is the belief we have little control over our health. It is a commonly held belief that our genetics are carved in stone and there is nothing we can do about it.

The second belief I wish to address is that there are "good emotions" and, therefore, "bad emotions." I venture all emotions are necessary and lead to better health when they are expressed in way that serves life.

One of the foundations of acupuncture and therefore Chinese medicine, is a framework of observation based on nature called, "The Law of the Five Elements."

This system is amazing. It can be applied to everything in nature from the interactions of molecules to the expansion of the Universe. It can be applied to decision-making as well as the health of our body—mind—spirit.

To annoy any physicists, I call it a "Theory of Everything." (You know who you are and what I am talking about. And yes, contact me and let’s talk.)

According to the Law of the Five Elements (5E), the cycle of seasons is divided into five seasons. Yes, five, Winter, Spring, Summer, Late Summer (the gooey time of year from roughly mid-July through mid-September), and Fall.

Each of these seasons has correlations to different aspects of nature and specifically, the human experience.

While the framework is relatively simple compared to, say, algebra, it is a very different way of looking at the world. It is easy to get lost in the details of the theory, so I shall attempt to peak your curiosity while keeping it very simple.

If you want lo learn more, go to www.tcmworld.org/what-is-tcm/five-elements or give me a call or email. I love to share what I know about this stuff.

In a nutshell, the 5E framework looks at the human experience in relationship to and as part of the natural world. These relationships include season, climate, color, sound, taste, odor, senses, organs and meridians (energy pathways), and emotions.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and quantum physics, everything is energy. Therefore, all of the 5E relationships are energetic relationships.

Of these relationships, generally speaking, emotions have the biggest influence on our health. The root cause of approximately 95 to 99% of all modern illness can be traced to an emotional imbalance that then leads to energetic imbalances in the body. These imbalances if not properly addressed will lead to an increasing array of symptoms.

After all, emotions are simply e-(nergy in) motion. When emotions get stuck or are not expressed appropriately, humans experience illness, mental as well as physical.

Modern Western medicine, especially the field of epigenetics, also recognizes the significant role emotions have on our health. My pathology professor in acupuncture school who was a genetic oncologist from Johns Hopkins Hospital returned from a conference on epigenetics one week and declared that he had been going about his career all wrong.

He said only 5-10 percent of all cancers were caused directly by genetics. The rest of cancers (90-95%) were influenced by lifestyle- the way we typically live- food, drink, activities, morals, relationships, and emotions.

I should add this is not limited to cancer. Lifestyle influences our health on all levels from the common cold, to asthma, allergies, high blood pressure, heart disease, auto-immune diseases, you name it.

It is important to note lifestyle is based on beliefs. Many of these beliefs can seem invisible for the simple reason we have never taken the opportunity to examine why we live life the way we do. We have never known there are other ways of doing things.

We typically live life the way our parents lived their lives, as they lived their lives based on their upbringing. This is where the fallacy of genetic inevitability of disease can take root.

If we do the same things and have the same beliefs about life and therefore the same influences on our health as our predecessors, it will look like our health is genetically hard-wired. It isn’t. Genetics are merely a probability, not an inevitability.

The idea that genetics are written in stone is one of the least helpful beliefs in our health care system. It is the basis of treatment planning, testing, treatments, and insurance rates.

While it is important that medical professionals take a detailed family medical history, too often the history itself is identified as a "health risk." This is a misuse of the information in my opinion. Very often, we look at our relative’s past health as our future.

The family medical history is an opportunity to reveal areas of concern, not make conclusions based on the experiences of other humans who happen to be related by blood. It is an opportunity to make changes and give our bodies a chance to use our innate healing ability.

The standard beliefs in our culture about health are the source of many strong and harmful emotions. When we look at our genetics as the source of life, not just the cause of illness, we increase the possibilities for a healthy life.

Now to my second point of this article.

Recently, in a conversation with the gentleman who was walking me through the contract for a new roof on my house, he asked, "Is it normal, to be, like, happy all the time? That doesn’t seem right to me."

First you may note, this may not seem like a normal conversation with a roofing contractor. Secondly, you might ask, "Isn’t happiness a good thing?"

Well, firstly, this is a perfectly normal conversation in my life. I typically develop friendships/relationships where the "small talk" is maybe not so "small."

Secondly, happiness is a good thing. And I venture it would be unusual and perhaps, not "healthy" for someone to be "happy" every second of every day.

In the 5E framework, there is an emotion associated with each of the five seasons. These emotions represent the energetic movement of each season. Out of balance, the emotions have an effect on the movement of energy in our body.

Please remember that emotions, in and of themselves, are not bad. It is simply an energetic response to life and its events. It is what we do with them that matters most.

A simplified list of the seasons and their associated emotions is: Winter- fear, Spring- anger, Summer- joy, Late Summer- worry, Fall- grief. Obviously, we don’t just experience each emotion only in that season. The correlations of the 5E framework are in constant motion every moment of every day.

Just as each season of the year is necessary for life to unfold and continue from year to year, each emotion is necessary for us to experience life fully. If we pass up the opportunity to experience an emotion it would be as if we skipped one of the seasons during the year.

Emotions are an expression of the relationship we have with the world around us. When we allow ourselves to experience emotions in a balanced way and let them move through us, we know more about life. We know more about the common human experience.

The challenge of emotions comes only when we suppress them. This is the beginning of imbalances that can lead to a less fulfilling life on all levels. Each of the energies of the emotions informs our bodies and allows them to function in a more healthy way. We experience emotions for the purpose of living life at its highest levels of body—mind—spirit.

Jefferson Breland is a board-certified acupuncturists licensed in Pennsylvania and Maryland with offices in Gettysburg and Towson, respectively.
He can be reached at 410-336-5876.