That’s the first question TCM practitioner Dr Bec will ask you in the clinic, if you present with neck pain. Neck pain can be of musculo-skeletal injury origin, or in TCM theory, can be caused by Cold, Heat or Wind invasion which most commonly occurs at change of season – where we are now. In clinic we most often see people who are stressed out with all of this Liver/Spring energy rising, and who have tension headaches, neck pain or eye problems due to emotional causes.
The Liver and Spring
Spring as a season has a strong correlation in Chinese medicine correspondences, with the environmental expression of Wind, the colour green, to match all the beautiful sprouting seeds and luscious landscapes, and also, the human emotion of anger. All of these are deeply connected to ourselves and the environment in which we live. Do you ever notice how tetchy and frustrated people get when the winds outside are really strong?
It’s just Yang waking up….
Yes! It’s good old Yin & Yang again….. Grumpy old Yang has been asleep and has woken up like a bear with a sore head.
The transition between the TCM defined Winter (Kidney season) and Spring (Liver season) is one of the main times of year that people come in complaining of neck pain, and with slow seasonal change this year, Spring seems like it’s going to take a while to arrive properly. Partly it’s because of Yang waking up.
During Winter, Yang mostly goes to sleep and the world goes inward and rests, both of which are quintessential Yin qualities. Once the Water element has finished with Winter, it feeds the Wood element, which then begins to grow. We have a natural flow through the cycles embodying the Five Elements, which are able to be observed in all areas of life, but most importantly, in the environment, and us, the people who live in it.
Yes, but what does that have to do with my neck?
WELL.
When Liver Yang stirs, its natural direction is upwards, a bit like a sprout, pushing through the soil trying to make its way toward the light. If your Liver meridian is blocked by say, frustration in your everyday life, lack of movement, failure to express yourself enough or speak your truth, hanging onto emotional issues that should possibly be brought out into positive communication to be resolved….
Those are all images of Liver Qi Stagnation. In the modern world, Liver Qi Stagnation is one of the most common clinical presentations behind some very normal health issues experienced by many people, partly due to the way that we as a culture have trained ourselves and each other to communicate in a restrained and unsatisfactory way.
NOW. If you have Liver Qi Stagnation, which means that your Liver meridian is blocked and not flowing freely with expression and openness, and then you hop along into Spring without having considered where you’re going to express all that stagnant emotional energy, it stays blocked.
THEN, Yang wakes up, and up it all goes, and lodges in your neck and head instead of flowing freely and regulating your emotions like it’s supposed to do.
And how does that actually look in real terms?
In a nutshell, it looks like neck pain, sometimes lower back pain, stress, tension headaches, blurred vision, red, sore or itchy eyes, frequent sighing, period pain or horrific PMS, and inappropriately grumpy outbursts. That’s what the ancient TCM texts all say about diseases originating from the Wood element system with the Liver as its primary organ and the Gallbladder as its secondary organ.
On a musculoskeletal biomedical level, stress, possibly affected by fight or flight instability when there is an obvious threat of strong winds that might cause fundamental damage to our primitive animal brains, produces cortisol and also causes muscle contraction in response to stimulus by an external environmental threat. Thereby our natural impulse is to protect ourselves from the wind by scrunching up our shoulders and lowering our heads.
Posture is also a very common contributing factor that we do have control over for prevention and easing of symptoms. But when our emotions are flowing freely and we are happy and confident instead of constrained, our posture changes and we begin to lead with love, placing our shoulders back, our hearts forward and our heads balanced over the cervical spine, where they are supposed to be. When that happens, muscle tension eases and neck pain reduces.
Acupuncture, cupping, gua sha & herbs can all help regulate the free-flow of Liver Qi. If you would like to book a time with Dr Rebecca Tolhurst, Registered Acupuncturist & Chinese Herbal Medicine practitioner, to talk about these issues or just vent your Spleen, book now
Otherwise, if you have some questions first, call or text 0422 353 446 or email tothepoint@tcmconsultancy.com.
Central Highlands Chinese Medicine 