Most of us would agree that the heart is the organ of the body most closely connected to emotion. When we talk about the heart, the terms heartache, heartbroken, sweetheart, or heartstring come to mind. This is the organ that’s notorious for not being subtle; it represents emotions that are on opposite poles, like ecstatic joy or intense sadness.
The heart, in traditional Chinese medicine in San Antonio or TCM, has a physical function that has parallels in Western medicine. It is responsible for the function of sweating and the blood vessels. Excessive perspiration is a sign that the heart needs to be supported and built up (tonified). Because the heart also controls the tongue, it can also affect speech. Speech problems such as loss of words and stuttering are signs of heart deficiency.
But the most important responsibility of the heart is to manage the shen and store the mind. One’s “Shen” can be determined by the overall health and well being of the mind. You will know if a person is well spirited and healthy just by looking at his or her eyes. Their eyes have a sense of health and a certain bright lucidity that shines from within. Acupuncturists would consider this person as having good shen.
Conversely, you also have people with eyes that look cloudy and dull or shifty (that shift from side to side) when you observe them. These people are considered to have a weak or feeble shen. This weak shen are sometimes the product of distraction or mild depression; and if the shen is severely sick, it can also indicate a type of mental imbalance.
The heart is both the effect and cause of ecstatic joy. This type of joy is considered a good thing to most people, but its effect can cause ADHD or manic depression. ADHD is sometimes attributed to a heart that cannot control the mind properly.
Wise individuals argue that the heart’s job is to follow the principles of propriety. For instance, this would be a person wearing a bathing suit. If that person wears a bathing suit in a bank meeting, this just shows that his or her heart was not providing him or her with the appropriate information on what to wear on a specific occasion. But the heart is doing its job if the person wears the bathing suit in a swimming pool during summer. This would imply that the responsibility of the heart is to follow proper behavior for the situation at hand.
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