The Underlying Emotional Meaning

Behind Physical Illnesses

Artwork by Diana Stanley

Stomach

Emotion: Can’t stomach life.  Life is more than I can handle.

Stomach tension and cramps and dyspepsia.  "I don’t like the way that my life is, nor the way that the world environment is - it knots me up inside because I don’t know how to go about changing it all."

There is a need to look at own life very carefully and analyse the many ways they don’t like life and recognise they only need to change themselves, not everyone and everything around them and work on one or two changes at a time if need be.

Emotion: - Repulsion and fear - Change to joy.

Ulcer

Worry about life. Gas

Seething with many thoughts of anger and discontent.  A build up of resentment and discontent over being frustrated by things, people, society or your own ineptitude.  Leads to indigestion, because I am being frustrated at every turn and I can’t hit back.

Wind

Wind is the sign of change.  It comes in the body first, preparing you to not resist, but to go with that change.

Change imminent is the stirring’s, rumblings and lots of discomfort.

Change resisted is a tightening effect along the digestive tract - in fact, refusal to work at all, in between stubbornly trying to stick to what is known.  Consequently intermittent rumblings, followed by everything slowing to a halt.  To overcome, accept that you are being driven by the winds of fate and just wait and let it happen.  Change will come, but because you know change is coming and are going to let it happen, wind stops, change comes, happiness all round.  Resist and there is discomfort all the way.  Let it happen and all that you are holding on to will just drop away as not needed when change has come.

Duodenum

Emotion: Worrying about starting things - new ideas, life, place of living, etc - there is an underlying need to get out of what you are doing , but instead of doing it, just worry continually about minor details until very little is ever started and fear takes over.

Small Intestines

Emotion: Has difficulties in going about life, life may seem difficult and certainly hard to digest.  Needs to find some humour in life because everything is taken too seriously and often can’t see the wood for the trees because of trying too hard.  Result:  A bogged down feeling.

Large Intestine

Integration of life and play and ideas into  balance.  Any imbalance creates disorder of bowels.

Diarrhoea

Comes from thinking a lot and too fast with no time to assimilate and put into practice.

Constipation

From constantly mulling over some thoughts and not letting go of  them.

Ulcer

From worrying.

Abscess

From festering ideas.

Haemorrhoids

From nursing some hurts about life which constantly niggle away at you.

Cancer Of Any Part Of The Digestive System

From nursing hurts from the past and refusing to release, feeling life has passed you by, feeling someone or something is to blame for your unhappiness, but unable to go about changing.  Lesson in life was to learn balance.

Liver

Emotion: I’m so angry with myself.  I keep getting it all wrong and I’m sick of struggling.  Constantly arguing with self.

Need to see another side or another choice, and to laugh at oneself, occasionally to lighten it all up.  Learn to use the positive energy of anger.  Has to release that anger and not store it.

Gall Bladder

Emotion: Anger coming from constant frustration of life.  Can’t quite manage to make life happen as wished.  Not able to bring life into perspective.  Creating hurt and frustration’s.  Links to migraine headaches when mind takes over the anger and repeats the hurt over and over again, sending the positive anger to the head, to create havoc.

  Gall Stones

Nursing the hurt, angers and frustration’s and repeating them over and over again in actions.

Spleen

Emotion: Life passing me by.  Time is my enemy, anger at myself for not doing and creating what I need - venting one’s spleen, anger sent outwards.

Ruptured Spleen

The translation of the bubble has burst in your life.  This is a bit like the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Many frustration’s, so many hard knocks or anything that has kept anger on the boil for so long, that it can no longer be contained, the volcano blowing its top.  The pressure has built up and even releasing the anger physically in one way or another, is not enough to counteract the build up of negative energy in the spleen.  The effect results in the weakening of the walls of the spleen over time, until the wall is weakened so much that it gives way and ruptures.

Pancreas

The small organ regulates itself according to the degree of joy or love or sweetness of life that you feel.  It will function according to your thoughts.  If words are used like "I can’t cope", "I don’t get enough",  "I have no reserves", I don’t get enough help", "I am unhappy", and so on, the emotional conflict will directly relate to the degree of sugar imbalance.  The body will translate the thoughts into its own interpretation and this will relate throughout the body in the regulatory areas, either as shut down, or slow down, or quicken up and this can seriously disrupt the balanced functioning of the body.

Hyperglycæmia

"If I really let myself feel the weight of my burdens, I will cry until doomsday.  I feel so sad and lost, but I will soldier on and compensate for all life feels to me, by doing the best I can".  Hyperglycæmia is too much sugar being produced to compensate for the lack of love experienced in everyday life.

Hypoglycæmia

Not enough enjoyment and happiness in my life - people do not give me the satisfaction I need to fulfil my life.  I don’t know how to give myself fun and joy.

Diabetes

"I’ve done enough now, you provide my sweetness for me.  I can no longer find any joy in my life".

Lungs

The Breath of Life.  Lungs are our expression of life, whether we can take it in and give it out and our expression of our ability to allow people close to us.

Lack Of Breath

"I can’t get enough out of life to sustain my needs.  Too much restriction in my life.  I can’t open myself up to others and life, in case it hurts too much".

Guilt

"My past mistakes are so great I don’t deserve to live a happy successful life.  I must be punished".

Sadness

"My lungs fill with unshed tears of the past.  I can’t release the sadness I see and feel around me".

Punishment

"Others haven’t punished me for what I am, so I must do so myself ".   (Emphysema, bronchitis).

Asthma

An emotional disturbance begins the attack from whatever trigger.  Feeling stifled or panic, left alone, unable to cope, overwhelmed.  Sometimes over protected.

Bronchitis

Emotionally beaten up, the breath knocked out of you, followed by a congestion of thoughts in your mind about all that has happened.  The situation is ongoing, so there is an inability to let go of the congestion.  The physical congestion builds as a result of mucous forming when the immune system can no longer cope with the influx of anger from another person’s words.  Usually develops into a chronic condition whilst the anger is directed at the person.

Emphysema

"The grief I feel is eating away at me.  The tissue of my life becomes so thin and so congested by the hurts and sadness that I feel unable to withstand the pain and sadness any more.  I am but a shell of what I was as those around me show me I am of little use in society and have no place in life left".

The sadness and grief is sustained because of the constant barbs about the faults, inconsistencies and inability’s of this soul to be a worthwhile person.

Pneumonia

"I am drowning in despair, I feel I have no way out of my loneliness and suffering from pain.  I have done what I can for my loved ones and yet they continue to hurt me and show me I am unloved and unwanted.  There is no release for my soul from this torment of sadness I find myself in".

(Will someone please show me that they care for me, so I can find some release from my pain).

Pleurisy

"The weight of my burdens fills me with tears which I must hide and not let anyone see, not even myself.  This is something I must continue to do until I can see the end of the time of travail.  However, there are times when I have to stop and realise that what I am choosing to do is harder than I feel physically able to accomplish, and then the continuing build up of what I have to do overwhelms me to a feeling of defeat".

Tuberculosis

"I feel unexploded resentment for the way life has treated me. My life is hard physically and emotionally and it fills me with pain and suffering.  I am sad and my thoughts fill me all day long.  I want to rail against society for forcing me into such a hard life and yet I have many to care for.  Sadness fills my soul when I see what they too are enduring and I can do no more for them.  I bleed when I look to the future and see no end to our suffering.  I also see and hear others whose fate was to have no hardship and I am tormented by the lack of feeling shown to my distress and the suffering of others.  Their lack of caring and hardness to fellow man, but particularly underlings is something I would like to spit upon".

Cancer and Tumours of the Lungs

"He/she/it/society/the government has hurt me over and over again and blamed me for that which I did not do.  I have suffered torment within myself as a result of this, because I did no wrong and I did not deserve to be punished".

There is a constant nursing of this hurt and repetition over many years, to deny any fault or wrongdoing.  At the same time there is gathering momentum of anger and resentment that this should be done to them.  If it were sadness it would lead to congestion within the lungs but this is a growing spreading belief of mistreatment in the face of wrongdoing.

It is in fact, the building blocks or the putting in of the foundation stones to a very bitter person who instead of letting go of hurts, builds and reconstructs a personality, so unlike the picture they have of themselves, that there is no way to cure the one, whilst the other exists.

This person wants to hit back and will, but will do it in such a way as to preserve their own picture of their very "goodness".  This is a very longstanding condition, usually from childhood.  The cancer will develop and grow proportionally to the amount of thought given to the hurts.

Kidneys

The circulation of fluids through the body, hence an ability to circulate through life with freedom.  The kidneys are our expression of fear in circulation through life and with others.

Heart

Our expression of love for ourselves and others and our expression of our emotions - broken hearted, heart filled.  Our heart problems often show restrictions on our happiness or joy of life, keeping others out of your life, not allowing yourself to open up to life and love.

Neck

Emotion: "I have no way of holding my head up against you - by myself.  I know why I feel this, but the world (or you) have beaten me till I now feel that my life is unable to unfold in the way I would have chosen.  I am now a different person.  I am either:

Resentful of all I have been through. (Arthritis).

Broken and Unsure.  (Whiplash and other accidental problems).

Nervous of all that may happen to me, so I am paining because of anything that  might be done to me. (Lack of energy to the hands and arms).

Pain that may be in the neck, shoulders and arms that feels like a nerve being pinched or any pain associated with stress.

Headaches associated with the back of the neck, comes from fluid or build up of pressure from any kind of imbalance.

Emotion: "I am left with no support, there is a weight pressing down on me that is too much for me to bear".

"I am in need of the backbone to live my life in the way I wish to live it, not as I feel forced to live it".

Result:  General pain in neck as well as along other parts of the spine, often associated with a build up of fluid and inflammation from either holding on to the way of life or feeling weighed down by circumstances that are so pressing it feels as if you must stay with this indefinitely.  The pain of the realisation is intense.

Shoulders

Shoulders have always been the way we hold ourselves in front of others.  If we feel we are overburdened, our shoulders droop with a heavy load; if we feel inferior will take a cringing posture towards another, and the muscles become inoperative; if we feel superior, the muscle size increases and a threatening pose of strength is adopted so that you lean towards another; if continually physically or emotionally threatened and your sensitivity and loving nature is at risk, then the shoulders will "cave in" to protect the heart, but the capacity to have strength and vitality and approach life with ease is diminished and the lungs will be unable to function correctly.  

Pain in the Right Shoulder Joint

"Going forward into this new situation feels such a burden, that I can hardly lift  my arms to do anything".  (Someone, please help me.)

Pain in the Left Shoulder Joint

"I cannot decide how to get into the next phase of my life.  The old way is too painful, the thought of finding a new way is almost too much for me to bear.  The decision to act just now is too difficult for me".  (Someone, please show me the way).

Pain at the Back of the Right Shoulder Joint

"Finding a way to shoulder my responsibilities is difficult right now.  How can I ease the burden on myself (or someone else) when there appears to be no other way"?

If inflamed

"I am angry that I am forced to take this course of action.  Why should I have to shoulder the burden (or the blame) if it is not mine to have"?

If frozen

 "My life is at a standstill, where do I turn now to change my direction and move  on.   "I am responsible for putting a burden on others.  I should have.......  Why did I..........?
What can I do"?

Breast

For a woman the breast is not only symbolic of her ability to mother or nurture her children, but it is also the symbol to the world of her femininity or her state of womanhood.
Someone who in their innermost heart longs to be a “mother” to love, nurture, protect, watch grow and bring joy to a child will from the time of that yearning begin to develop the type of breasts that will encompass all of that meaning to her. She will probably also develop those “Child bearing hips” at the same time. So firm, voluptuous breasts will symbolise to her the fact that she is ready and waiting to become a “mother”.

Smaller, underdeveloped breasts mean to a woman, that she is not yet ready to cross that bridge between being an “I”, to being a “we “ in terms of motherhood. This does not mean that she may find it impossible to bear a child, just that the emotional tie she has to motherhood is not as yet developed. If a child is born, she may then bridge that gap readily and willingly, but if not then many problems may develop within her “child bearing organs”. The same thing can occur when for one reason or another, she is unable to have a child even though her whole being was ready and willing to have it.

They are, along with her body shape, the window to how she sees herself in her physical surroundings. If she is unsure of herself and insecure her body shape will become one that wishes to sink into the surroundings and not be seen. If she wants to be seen, to stand out, maybe ambitious to make her way in society her body will conform to the perceived need for that to occur. If the woman sees herself as only being “worthwhile” in a sexual way then her body will conform to that need.

Thus her body and breasts become the focus of her inner being, if there is any imbalance in her perception of herself , her emotional well being and her thought processes will manifest an imbalance within her body. If her perception of her femininity and her worth as a person is at risk, then the breasts will be where an illness will occur and will spread to any other focus of that perception she has of herself in the bodily part which is symbolised by her perceived lack of worth. Since the upbringing of women from

Edwardian times worldwide was to denigrate and undervalue the worth of the young and the method of discipline was harsh, the words spoken, especially to young girls, was often to show a worthlessness in their existence, women have been battling to prove they have a right to exist, and can give all the value of untold centuries into the makeup of a society which can be more balanced, protective and nurturing.

Many young girls collapsed under the strain of their environmental background, and are suffering to find their own place in the world that to them is harsh and unsupportive. The worthless place of woman has resulted in untold misery and confusion. Breast cancer is the result of the plight of the young women brought up within that society. A more loving family background brought about since the 1960’s and the battle of the many feminists over the years, has begun to present a place for a woman to live out a less strained life in the future.

Cancer

Breast cancer will usually result from one of the reasons mentioned above. Even if the woman was able to become a mother in accordance to her needs, and bring up her children in a more nurturing manner than the subservient way she may have been brought up, she has often not been able to be secure in her right to her place in the world. If she was a very sensitive child, the hurts of her world as a child may have overwhelmed her. The thought of those hurts will eventually create a breast cancer. It is as if all her world was a grey, lifeless place and that greyness lives within her.

It may also be that she grew up expecting to live out the great ideal which grew in most people after the Second World War. It seemed possible for every girl to grow up, marry the man of their dreams, have children they would love and give everything they could, and build or buy the dream house. For a while this seemed possible, but many of these dreams fell apart with the husband who was not the man of her dreams, and the mortgage and trying to be the “supermum “ of the working wife. Marriages fell apart, often she became the sole parent with little support, and in trying to give all she could to others, lost her own identity and cannot find her own loving, loved place in the society in which she lives. For many the only security to make them feel loved and cared for comes from sex. Hurting, creates this cancer. Mostly from a feeling of little right to exist and a worthlessness since that was the means of showing young people how to behave in their own childhood.

The next generation are gradually building their own cancer from the lack of opportunity in the workplace to show what talent they may be able to give to others. They are behaving at a younger age the lack of hope they may possess from having little opportunity to develop an identity that shows them who they are and that they are capable of holding a place they have forged from their own ability to be needed. Breast cancer then is the illness produced by the values of society. A woman can cure her breast cancer when she finds her worth, her needs, her value to others, her own sense of what she is and what she needs to do with her life. If she continues to dwell on the old hurts the cancer will probably progress and cause an early death.