Anger.
It’s that powerful emotion that carries its own strength and force, causing your heart to pound, your face to flush and palms to get sweaty. When it hits you, you can’t escape it, your thoughts race and you no longer think clearly and no longer make rational decisions. We may have seen a bit more anger in recent days
According to Chinese Medicine, the liver holds our anger. In our culture, we think of the liver as the filter of our blood. But when we think about what the liver is filtering: all toxins, cellular waste, old hormones and even negative emotions then it is easy to start to understand the feelings of anger when the liver is overworked.
When we find we are struggling with more anger in our lives, feeling as if we have a short fuse, feeling frustrated and tense, then we need to take some time to support our liver. Supporting your liver should be part of your daily routine, if not at least weekly. You don’t need to do a major detox, but instead do simple daily activities like this, or this that support your body’s natural ability to cleanse. Much like taking out the trash, dusting and sweeping your home.
The liver does not work well when we are tense and angry.
Instead it works best when we are relaxed and calm. When we hold more anger, we allow our bodies to hold onto all toxins in the body. The longer we allow the body to hold onto toxins, the more inflammation we will find in our body and ultimately the more likely we will struggle with disease.
Finding ways to allow our body to relax and cleanse is one of the best ways to support our health and stay focused and attentive to address the needs of our family, our community and our country. Today, I’d like to share with you one of my new favorite ways to love on your liver. This method is simple, incredibly rejuvenating and restorative. I wonder why it took me so long to finally try it.
The Castor Oil Pack
Castor Oil has been used for centuries in a variety of healing modalities. Castor oil is antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal. It has been used to treat skin conditions, reduce pain and it is used to support the immune system and detoxification by stimulating the lymphatic system. By placing a castor oil pack on your abdomen for up to one hour, you increase lymphocyte activity allowing your body to increase the rate at which it removes toxins. By using the castor oil pack you reduce your overall toxic load allowing the organs to work more efficiently and ultimately lessen any anger, fatigue and/or depression you may be struggling with.
The castor oil pack is incredibly easy, inexpensive and done at home.
Here is what you need:
- Organic Castor Oil
- Organic wool flannel (but to be honest, an old washrag will work fine at first.)
- An old towel to lay on
- Plastic wrap or garbage bag to cover the flannel with (or another old towel)
- Heating pad or hot water bottle
- 30-60 minutes
First, saturate the flannel (or washcloth) with your castor oil. Then lay down on the old towel either on your bed or couch. (Be sure to protect whatever you want to lay on with a towel, the castor oil will stain.) Place the saturated flannel directly on your skin over your abdomen and a bit more to the right to cover the liver as well. Cover it with the plastic wrap or garbage bag and place the heating pad or water bottle over top. Rest for 30-60 minutes.
Enjoy this time to do something quiet, such as reading or writing in a journal or just resting with your eyes closed. This is meant to be a quiet, restorative activity and is often best done just before bed to support a deeper more rejuvenating sleep.
When finished, you’ll need to wipe off the excess castor oil off your abdomen and drop those towels in the laundry. You can store the saturated flannel cloth in a plastic bag next to your bed along with your heating pad or hot water bottle so that everything is ready to go the next time you want to do a castor oil pack.
At first, it is recommended to do a series of them 3-4 days in a row. But even just doing the occasional castor oil pack will be beneficial.
Have you done a castor oil pack? How did you like it? If you haven’t, will you give this a try? Tell me in the comments below! I’d love to hear from you!