The Spirit of our Organs — Part 1: Heart and Kidneys
The Zhi and the Shen
In Chinese medicine, the Five Phases or Five Elements recognise the weaving of body, mind, and nature into continuous cycles.
Each organ has its season, its emotion, its flavour, colour, body tissue, body area, its time of day and almost all other categories of the known world.
But beyond the physical, each organ is also home to a spirit.
The Kidneys house the Zhi, the spirit of willpower and deep reserves. She gives us the capacity to hold our course through life.
The Heart houses the Shen, our conscious spirit. She is clarity, presence, and our ability to connect meaningfully to life.
The Culture of Overriding
Most of us, without even realising it, override the voice of our organs and their spirits.
We push through tiredness with caffeine.
We bury stress under productivity.
We override the signals that ask us to pause.
It’s the yang-addicted world. And yes, we get things done — brilliantly, even. But at a cost.
The Zhi grows weary. The Kidneys, keepers of yin and yang, become depleted. And when they run on empty, things begin to unravel.
When the Kidneys Run on Empty
When Kidney yin and yang lose balance, the nervous system falters.
Temperature control becomes erratic: hot flushes, icy feet, night sweats, sudden heat waves, shivering after showers.
And fear often begins to stir. Not the fleeting surface kind, but a deep marrow-level unease whispering, Who am I? Where am I?
Yet there is a turning.
By the time true menopause arrives, fear often gives way to fierceness. Nourished again, the Zhi rediscovers her power.
Why Your Heart Cannot Rest
The Heart feels it too. Years of overriding our desires and visions unsettle the Shen.
When the Shen cannot rest in a blood-rich Heart, symptoms surface: palpitations, restless sleep, vivid dreams, anxiety, poor memory, a dull complexion, emotional fragility.
In Chinese medicine, sleep belongs to the Heart. If the Shen has no safe home, she roams.
When Shen and Zhi Separate
Life shocks, trauma (Big T or little T), sudden accidents, these can shift and seperate the link between Shen and Zhi.
When this connection frays, we can lose so much of what we’ve been working towards.
It can be subtle, like something's just don’t feel right anymore (relationships, familiarity with your own body, passions changeing, energy just not around anymore) or more intense with anxiety, pain or emotional dysregulation.
Restoring this axis is often at the centre of my clinical, especially work with women.
When Shen and Zhi are reunited, vitality returns. The nervous system regulates. Adaptability, creativity and play and trust returns.
Remember that?! xx
Perimenopause as a Great Overhaul
Perimenopause is no small passage for many of us. It’s an internal renovation of the highest order. No wonder it can feel so full on.
But when we nourish the Zhi and the Shen through body-based practice, deep rest, and the right support, we reclaim a steadiness that ripples through body, mind, and emotions.
From here, menopause is not a diminishment. It is an initiation. A profound step into power. And that power is new, it’s not the forcing pushing type. It’s something very different…
If something in this stirs you, reach out. I’m taking new clients.
Big love,
Anny ♥️
