Flexibility, or smoothness, is the essence of the Liver, both physically and mentally
“The physician who knows how to harmonize the liver knows how to treat the hundred diseases.” (from Zhou Xuehai, Reflections Upon Reading the Medical Classics (Du Yi Suibi), 1895)
The Liver looks like a crouching tiger, ready to jump.
In fact, the tiger is characterized by flexible strength and elegance. Cats and all felines are also quite emblematic with their ability to switch swiftly from very calm to very active, and vice versa.
Along with the Gallbladder, the Liver has a role of regulator/harmonizer or sifter: it equilibrates energy levels in the body. There is even an old Chinese saying: “The Liver is the root of stopping extremes”.
Such assumption can seem too abstract, or even mystical, but, actually, it becomes very clear when we look at the biology of the liver.
In fact, the liver is the organ that manages the quality and quantity of blood in the body.
What does this mean? For example, when we rest, the body needs less circulating blood than when we are active. Therefore, when we rest, the blood goes back to the liver (the liver gets bigger like a sponge). Conversely, when we are active, the liver frees more blood into the arteries and can even build additional blood (blood is created in the bone marrow, under the control of Kidneys, but its creation is finalized in the Liver).
Besides quantity, the quality of blood (its composition) needs also to be adapted depending on circumstances. Typically, and keeping a general perspective, we need less nutrients in the blood at rest than during activity.
The Liver also possesses detoxifying functions that purify blood. So, here again, the Liver influences blood quality. More precisely, the Liver processes toxins (mainly coming from digestion) in order to make them less harmful and easily excretable through kidneys or lungs.
Finally, the Liver controls the whole hormonal production by synthesizing cholesterol — the building block of hormones — as well as degrading hormones that are no longer needed. Hence, even at the hormonal level, the Liver acts as a harmonizer.
When the regulatory function of the Liver starts to fail, we cannot adjust our energy levels to our energy needs. So, we get either frustrated or tired and depressed.
Since we cannot regulate our energy, we also tend to invest too much energy for each of our “spirit’s movements”. This results as general compulsiveness or anger (in a very broad sense). But, to be exact, it’s not really about too much energy but rather about chaotic energy.
From that original compulsiveness, stem more specific emotions: anger, envy, rancour, irritability, aggressivity, frustration, mania, avarice, greed, addiction, gruff behaviour, clumsiness.
A gruff or clumsy behaviour is also about a lack of elegance/finesse and precision of movement. In that sense, and also because of a lack of motivation (dopamine), Parkinson’s disease is strongly related to the Liver (and Kidneys). This was even confirmed by some studies.
Frustration is when energy is not enough. More precisely, frustration happens when we feel that energy cannot be freed in a sufficiently organized manner in order to realize our action. On the other hand, mania/compulsiveness is when too much energy is freed in a chaotic manner, like a boiling pot that is covered with a lid. Both frustration and manic behaviour can happen alternatively and originate in the Liver.
What makes us irritable is the feeling of being braked in our original intention. We feel that our actions cannot be as smoothed as our thoughts. Even our thoughts cannot be as smoothed as they should be to adapt to a brutal change of our environment (for example feeling irritated when someone is interrupting us).
With all these examples, you can grasp the meaning of Liver’s regulatory function. This function provides us the general ability to be “flexible” and adapt to change.
Of course, every organ has some regulatory property. We can say for example that the Kidneys regulate the Heart and mineral balance, the Lungs regulate the Liver, etc. This is normal because it amounts to say that there is yin within yang, yang within yin, and that all five elements are present in each element.
But you can see that the regulatory function of each organ is never as complete or as obvious as the one found in the Liver.
We can also understand the Liver in its relation to other organs.
In particular, the Kidneys mainly store the energy while the Heart mainly disperses energy. Hence, Liver’s mobilizing function is situated half-way between Kidneys and Heart. In fact, the Liver “wakes up”/mobilizes the energy from the Kidneys, and — at the same time — it gives direction to the dispersing nature of the Heart. Hence, overactivity of the Liver depletes the Kidneys, as well as disrupting homeostasis (controlled by the Heart). Homeostasis needs energy dispersion in order to be fully activated. At the mental level, dispersing energy means we are not taking sides for anything particular in our minds. That process becomes very difficult when the Liver is imbalanced.
Spiritually, the Liver’s role of mobilizing energy translates not only as motivation but also as generosity. In fact, the general meaning of generosity is simply about giving our own energy. Then, of course, that energy can have many different expressions.
This seems to be confirmed by the writings of Saint Hildegard von Bingen. In fact, the “Back Shu” acupuncture point of the Liver is associated with the thoracic vertebra T9 which is related to the virtue of generosity/charity, according to Saint Hildegard von Bingen.
Both Liver and Gallbladder (Wood element) are also associated with the virtue of patience/tranquillity as opposed to anger/criminality/aggressivity.
Cheers!
