the flow of energy

unbalanced emotions -depression, anxiety, obsession, sadness, open up a pathway through which noxious pathogens can enter.

If heart becomes distracted and unclear your path will become congested, and severe harm to the body will result. If we lead lives that are centered around distracting thoughts and activities, harmful consequences will result.

If the heart does not abuse its superior position, if it remains centered and focused on the essential matters, the jing will flourish and the qi will be steady, noxious intruders will always be fought off, the dantian will be full with treasures, and every part of the body landscape will be light and at piece.

The heart relationship to the other organs is hierarchical; not only do the twelve channel networks attune their respective qi [functions] to the directives of the heart, but they offer their entire jing [material essences] as tribute to nourish the heart.

The heart is connected to the kidney. Due to this interdependent relationship between the heart and the kidney, there are two methods of nourishing and protecting the heart: First, there is the method of nourishing the heart qi directly. This means: do not burden yourself with depressing thoughts, do not get anxious about future events that may never happen, do not dwell on things that are well in the past -all of these emotions dissipate the brightness of shen. If we overextend our heart we will harm its qi. If this happens, the heart jing will also suffer damage, and the shen, consequently, will lose its abode. If we take a look at the doctrines of Confucius -do not will, do not strive, do not be inflexible, do not be egotistical -and his student Mencius -do not be self-righteous, do not expect things, do not force things- we see the art of nourishing the heart. Understand how to nourish the heart.

Second, there is the option to foster the heart by nourishing its jing via the kidney network. If there is no protective maintenance of the kidney, the kidney jing will be harmed. If the kidney jing is harmed, then its qi will also suffer detrimental influences. Water, then, will be unable to restrain fire, yin will be unable to provide shelter to yang, and pathological water qi will enshroud the heart.

The seven emotional reactions (joy, anger, sadness, grief, fright, apprehension, worry) and their involuntary expressions (facial expressions, body movements, gestures, sighing, moaning, giggling, sobbing) are manifestations of shen.

self-awareness and self-control mechanism -associated with the liver
the body's basic reactive instincts -associated with the lung
the ability of thinking and remembering -associated with the spleen
the function of memory -associated with the kidney
the function of processing all incoming sensory and intuitive information and supervising the body/mind reaction to it -associated with the heart.