I often find myself speaking to people who have seen dramatic changes in a friend or relative following The Body Code sessions that they have had with me. When I ask the friend how much they know about The Emotion Code or The Body Code their first response is generally along the lines of “I know you find emotions from the past and then do something to make a person feel better…” This is often followed by “… but I don’t know if you can help me because there is nothing wrong with my mind it is just that I’ve got IBS/low back pain/palpitations that the doctor can’t find a cause for… and my friend said I needed to speak with you!”

I have found myself pondering why nearly everyone states “nothing wrong with my mind” and believe that this stems from a misunderstanding about emotions which has arisen during the past 70 years or so as Western Medicine has evolved, leaving most people with the belief that body parts need to be treated with drugs, replaced, or in extreme cases, removed to be “made better”. I thought it might help if I shared these reflections. I believe this commonly held view comes from the belief that emotions stem exclusively from the mind. Although, if we look at the language we use in everyday conversation we can discover a different understanding; one where emotions are linked to the vital organs of our body. Some of the following phrases may sound old fashioned because recent generations have moved away from the roots that gave rise to them, however, I’d ask you to wonder why they came about in the first place.

• “He’s liverish today” – meaning he’s irritable, angry or bad tempered
• “Bowed down by grief” – describing the physical feelings of being bent over by grief
• “Butterflies in the stomach” – describing the feelings of nervousness

A clue to the origin of these phrases can be found in Five Element Acupuncture which is based on traditional concepts evolved from observations made over the course of some 2000 years and identifies 5 key emotions linked to organs;

• Anger -> Liver & Gall Bladder,
• Joy (Overjoy) -> Heart & Pericardium,
• Worry (or Sympathy) -> Spleen & Stomach,
• Grief -> Lung & Large Intestine,
• Fear -> Kidneys & Bladder

Does this mean an emotion affects the organ or is generated by the organ? To be honest I’m not sure, however, many traditional healing modalities work with the same links. There are many more examples, if you start looking for them you will see they crop up everywhere. For example; “Heart skips a beat” – joy / excitement, “A galling experience” – frustration / anger, “Venting his spleen” – anger (again!), “Difficult to stomach / swallow” – disgust. If you venture outside of the English language I am told that there are examples in many languages which relate similar emotions to the same organs. Why is this? It has come from observing how people look physically when in the grip of an intense emotion and how they describe the way they feel.

To get back to my original point; do any of these mention the mind? No. Don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying that the mind doesn’t play a part in emotional responses, however, I do believe that our organs play a major part too.

So, how might The Body Code help? Well, think of what happens when you have to walk a few hundred yards with a stone in your shoe. Initially it is uncomfortable, then the stone might shift a bit as you shake your foot, then it settles and starts to bruise your foot or dig into it creating a cut or blister. Eventually you are able to stop and shake the stone out of your shoe. Instantly you feel relief from the pain, although there may be some damage that your body will heal over the course of the next few days. Consider then that emotions are balls of energy vibrating at specific frequencies (the equivalent of the stone in my analogy). They may get trapped in, or close to, the organ they are linked to or they may migrate from that organ to another part of the body. Either way, at a basic energy level, they are tangible, just as the stone in your shoe is tangible, and they have the potential to damage the area they are lodged in. The Body Code uses kinesiology based muscle testing to identify these clumps and twists of energy and help release them so that the surrounding body tissues can heal.

In summary, if a client has low back pain is their pain “in the mind”? No, it is in their lower back. Are the emotions or energy that are causing the pain “in the mind”? No, they are quite likely to be in the kidneys, bladder or lumber muscles. So, to return to my opening paragraph, is The Body Code only able to help people who think they have something wrong with their mind? No, it is intended to help people who are suffering or restricted in some form or another by releasing trapped emotions and other energies. Are emotions just something in the mind? Well I certainly believe that emotions are linked to vital organs throughout the body and I hope this article has helped to explain why.

Hazel Markou, Cerfitied Emotion Code and Body Code Practitioner