The Heart's Protector

Today I had an acupuncture appointment. It was long overdue, and I really needed it.

It’s been a long winter, and the time around Christmas felt especially heavy. My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s about two years ago. While this journey has taught me so much about presence and meeting each moment fully and wholeheartedly when I’m with her, it also takes a lot of emotional bandwidth. Grief like this isn’t loud or dramatic. It’s quiet, ongoing, and in my case, was carried in my body.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Pericardium is the protector of the Heart. The Heart is said to house the Shen; our spirit, consciousness, and emotional life, and is considered too precious to be directly impacted by stress or emotional strain. Instead, the Pericardium acts as a buffer. It holds, absorbs, and softens what feels like too much, helping protect the Heart from being overwhelmed. Interestingly, in Western medicine, the pericardium is quite literally a sac that surrounds and protects the heart.

While I was resting with the needles in today, I became aware of a lot of movement in the centre of my chest, almost like anxiety butterflies. What stood out most was that this movement was happening in a place that had long felt heavy and tight, as though something had been wrapped closely around my heart for a long time. Without my noticing, my Pericardium had been quietly working to protect my Heart from emotional strain.

As an acupuncturist, I might describe this as emotional stagnation. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, grief is classically associated with the Lungs, but it often moves through, and gets held by the Pericardium, as the Heart’s protector. The Pericardium can work very hard to contain complex, long-term grief, especially the kind that comes with caring for or living alongside someone with a chronic or degenerative condition. It’s layered, ongoing and often deeply complicated.  

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, emotions are not separate from the body. Their ability to move and be expressed is just as important as physical function. In fact, repressed or unprocessed emotions are often seen as a root cause of imbalance. When they’re allowed to gently shift and move, we support the whole person - body, mind, and spirit.

If you’re moving through a season that feels heavy, or holding more than you realize, acupuncture can be a gentle place to land. I'm here to work with anyone who may need a space to rest, be supported and let your system remember how to soften again.

Please note: all references to internal organs are from the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which is why they are capitalized. While some functions described in TCM may overlap with Western medical concepts, it is not within the scope of practice for registered acupuncturists in Alberta to provide Western medical diagnoses or medical advice.