When worry overtakes joy
Welcome to our 5 part series on how each organ system is linked to specific emotional state and why addressing our emotional needs have implications for our health.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), when we talk about the organ, we are not primarily referring to the anatomical organ that Western medicine describes. We’re talking about a functional system — an energetic network of processes.Think of it less as an organ and more as a set of responsibilities in the body–mind -spirit ecosystem.
By gently addressing your hurts and emotional patterns, you may not only feel more internally supported, but may also begin to see shifts or relief in certain physical health issues as well.
In TCM, joy lives in the Heart. The Heart is like the sun within you—it radiates warmth, clarity, emotional connection, and a sense of aliveness. When the Heart is well-nourished with blood, joy arises naturally. You feel present, mentally clear, emotionally steady, and spiritually at ease.
The Heart and Spleen are interdependent
But the Heart cannot create this nourishment on its own. It depends on the Spleen, the earth energy of the body, to produce the blood that sustains it.
The Spleen takes in food, experiences, and information, and transforms them into qi and blood—the essential substances that feed the Heart. While the Heart governs and circulates the blood, it is the Spleen that creates and manages it. In this way, the Spleen is the ground, and the Heart is the sun. The brighter the sun shines, the more alive and joyful you feel—but its light depends entirely on the strength of the earth beneath it.
When the Spleen is strong
The spleen produces abundant blood to nourish the Heart. This allows the Heart to house the Shen—the spirit—fully. Joy feels steady, not forced. Your mind is clear. Your emotional presence is stable. You can focus, connect, and experience life with openness and warmth.
When excessive worry takes over
To the best of your ability, trust that there is not something to "do" or even to "fix". When we uncover patterns, our mind seeks to "fix", as if there is something "wrong".
However, excessive worry weakens the Spleen. Worry drains the earth energy, reducing its ability to create blood. As the Spleen becomes depleted, the Heart begins to lose its nourishment. The sun starts to dim.
When the Heart lacks sufficient blood, joy becomes harder to access. Instead, symptoms of Heart-Spleen vacuity appear: palpitations, insomnia, dizziness, poor memory, a lusterless complexion, fatigue, and a sense of emotional dullness or disconnection. It is not that joy has disappeared—it is that the Heart no longer has the nourishment required to sustain its light.
This creates a cycle: a weakened Spleen fails to nourish the Heart, and a weakened Heart cannot sustain joy or properly support the Spleen.
Letting go of worry is possible
This is why joy is not simply an emotion in Chinese medicine—it is a physiological state supported by blood and qi. The Spleen builds the foundation that allows joy to exist. When the Spleen is nourished and worry is released, it feeds the Heart. And when the Heart is fed, joy naturally returns, like the sun emerging again after being hidden behind clouds.
Experiment
Write down what is worrying you.
Then, listen to this song as if you’re sing it to yourself, By Your Side, Ane Brun.
Close your eyes to the outside world so that you can look/listen/feel/smell your inner world.
Place your hand on your heart to connect with your heart’s intelligence and ask yourself, “What would my higher self, the self that cannot get anything wrong, say to this part of me that is worried?”
