Monthly Saturday Class | Saturday, March 15, 2025 | 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Heart of the Valley Yoga | 529 NW 4th St. Corvallis, OR 97330 | $35.00
Liver: How to Get Big
It isn’t just in your head. Bodies hold emotions, past experiences, and influence your perspective on the world. Thousands of years ago, people began to recognize the relationship between organs and emotional states, and developed practices to help balance these internal forces.
The Liver is large. It is the most substantial internal organ by mass and weight. Within a Chinese medical understanding, it’s also known to carry a big emotion: anger. When you’re made to take up space, it’s frustrating to be constrained. You probably know how it feels to try being smaller than you are. You’ve also seen how this affects your emotions: resentment, irritation, surliness, pressure building up until you feel yourself ready to explode. Stagnation is one of the Liver’s most common imbalances, and it develops from putting artificial limits on this organ’s natural movement toward expression.
There’s nothing wrong with anger when it’s allowed a healthy outlet. Anger helps us set good boundaries, provides focused motivation, distinguishes between right and wrong, exposes our passion. And when anger moves freely, it makes space for the rest of the emotions to do the same. A free-flowing Liver delivers the right dose of whatever is needed to the right place at the right time. In Chinese medicine its role is to help distribute the resources of the body to the various organs through the medium of Blood. When the body is well-resourced, it has the necessary foundation to flourish. A healthy, thriving Liver shows up in our lives as creative acts and smooth transitions. We may have to clear out some gunk to get there, but the grass is definitely greener on the other side.
Join us for the Spring installment of our Organ Support Series. We’ll practice freeing up the Liver through Qi Gong exercises and creative exploration. No experience necessary. All are welcome to attend.