Imagine your body like a computer, and your organs are data storages. Each time you think something, your brain will get data from your organs and supply you with a final report, for you to make a decision.
That’s what I experience in my qigong practice. As I practice Inner Smile meditation, my mind is becoming sensitive toward what happens in my body. Every time I practice, I feel my body is lighter, and my organs are smiling back to me, giving me a nice and comfortable feeling. The practice itself starts with smiling to the heart, then spleen, lungs, kidneys, and ends with liver.
The sequence is following the creation cycle of 5 elements. For you who are unfamiliar with Taoist 5 elements, let me brief you a little bit. Taoist believe that our body consists of 5 elements, which are fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. In our body, these elements are represented by our heart – fire, spleen – earth, lungs – metal, kidneys – water, and liver – wood.
These elements interact with each other through cycles. Which means they influence a certain element, then creating a cascading effect toward another elements. There are 3 types of cycles in which they relate with each other. They are creation cycle, controlling cycle, and insulting cycle.
If they operate under good emotions, they support each other and create creation cycle. If we entertain bad emotions, they destroy each other in controlling cycle resulting in sickness in insulting cycle. Our organs are interdependent and interconnected with each other. One organ breaks, it definitely affects the other. It is presumptuous to think that it is okay to pay attention to only one organ without thinking the wellbeing of the other.
Sadly, that’s what I did. I thought if I cared and loved my family, I needed to work hard for their wellbeing, get rid of things that may harm them, and provide them with money, shelter, and food. However, life is not always smooth. There were always changes and uncertainties. I realized that. Therefore I was tormented by uncertainties and worrying about its potential to bring my family and loved ones’ wellbeing down. I was worried when my business sales got problem. I was worried when my kids may get sick. Being worried was what I did. It was also the source of my determination in deciding anything, from food to investment.
Until I realized I got easily sick by a simple change in weather, allergies, or I easily burned out from simple tasks. Little discomforts began to emerge, one by one. When I started to practice Inner Smile meditation, I noticed there was a lot of negativity in my spleen. I smiled to my spleen, then I felt my spleen smiled back to me. It was a nice feeling.
One week after the initial practice, I felt my body had more energy than usual, my mind was clearer, and I didn’t easily get burned out. Okay, it was a subjective feeling—maybe placebo effect, who knows. Then I asked Gemini whether spleen also secretes biochemicals, and here is its answer:
When you focus on your spleen during your Inner Smile meditation, you trigger a “good release” driven by three distinct biological phenomena:
1. The Release of Healing Peptides
While not classified as traditional hormones, the spleen produces specialized signaling proteins called peptides. The most famous one is tuftsin. [1, 2]
– What it does: Tuftsin acts as a natural activator for your immune cells.
– The “Good” Feeling: When tuftsin is released, it reduces oxidative stress and inflammation. It has also been shown to have a direct, mild analgesic (pain-relieving and comforting) effect on the nervous system, which is likely exactly what you are feeling. [3, 4, 5]2. A Fresh Flush of Blood and Platelets
The spleen acts as your body’s primary blood reservoir, holding a backup supply of fresh red blood cells and platelets. [6]
– When you are stressed, the spleen tightens up.
– When you send a gentle “smile” to it, you activate the vagus nerve, which tells the spleen to relax. As it relaxes, it allows a smooth, fresh circulation of oxygen-rich blood and cellular nutrients to flow back into your abdominal cavity, producing a warm, satisfying physical sensation. [7, 8, 9, 10]3. The Releasing of “Worry” (The Mind-Body Connection)
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the spleen is the organ associated with the emotion of worry and overthinking. [8, 10]
– When we worry, we literally hold tension in the left side of our rib cage where the spleen sits.
– By focusing on it with gratitude, you are actively releasing that physical clenching. The sudden relief from dropping that subconscious “holding pattern” feels like a rush of peace and lightness. [7, 9]
My feeling wasn’t a fluke. It was real. I wasn’t imagining it, and it wasn’t a placebo effect. Now, I am calmer and fresher. The drawback is, I can not use my worry energy to drive myself toward business achievements anymore. However, in my reflection, I didn’t achieve much back then. Most of my business projects failed. There wasn’t enough evidence that if I use worry as motivation to do business, I can achieve what I want. In fact, my worries were the catalyst of discontents between my business partners and me, leading to our breakup and business failure.
I also do not want to live with worry and potential chronic illness in the near future. To replace my loss of drive without worry-energy, I begun to try to harness the power of habit .Instead of being consumed by worry, irritating others, and doing starting soon and stopping afterward due to fatigue and burnout, I start to learn how to accept any situation sincerely with gratitude. Because there are a lot of things we can’t control, it is better to learn to accept things that we can’t control, and start focusing on doing what I can do at the moment, though small it may seem.
Slowly, the power of habit shows me its power over time. I didn’t start big and stop easily. I consistently do my small steps after steps, giving me compounding results over time. It’s like a tsunami of results. One success becomes the bedrock of future success. I don’t need to use worry-energy anymore. I got a better one.