The Liver, Emotion, and True Holistic Health.
The liver does far more than filter chemicals. In traditional energetic medicine it is also the organ that processes the energy of anger, frustration, suppressed truth and internal pressure. When those emotions are not expressed or resolved, the liver is the place they settle. The body keeps emotional score, and the liver is one of the main storage sites for what we refuse to feel.
Traditionally the liver is associated with:
• Anger
• Frustration
• Irritability
• Resentment
• Feeling stuck or blocked
• Difficulty letting emotions move
This is not a metaphor. Emotion is energy. Energy moves through tissue, fascia and blood flow. When it cannot move, it stagnates, and the liver reflects this. Emotional stagnation becomes physical stagnation. You can feel it as pressure under the ribs, irritability without clear cause, or a sense that there is “heat” inside the body that has nowhere to go.
Repressed anger does not disappear. It waits. The liver holds it until we are ready and able to move it.
The liver does most of its detoxification or clearing work while we sleep. That time is usually between 1am to 3am. During these hours the liver clears, sorts, and transforms internal material. This includes metabolic waste and emotional residue.
If you are awake at this time regularly, or wake during these hours with heat, agitation or a restless mind, it can indicate liver imbalance or emotional backlog.
Modern patterns disrupt this cycle. Screens late at night, artificial lighting, overstimulation, overstressing the nervous system and pushing past natural rest signals interfere with the liver’s night work. The result often looks like:
• Irritability
• Night sweats
• Restlessness
• Waking hot or agitated
• Short temper the next day
• Feeling drained in the morning
This is liver heat and liver stagnation in energetic language. The body is trying to process what we have loaded into it, physically and emotionally, and it is struggling to keep up.
The liver does not only detox chemicals. It detoxes emotion. It detoxes suppressed self-expression. It detoxes unfinished emotional cycles.
Modern health systems often treat the body as parts. Liver here. Brain there. Emotions somewhere else. But that is not how healing works. Every organ has emotional and energetic functions. Every emotion has biochemical consequences. We are not divided beings. And, just as we are not divided beings, plants also work best when they are not divided beings. When they are crafted with reverence and respect for all aspects of their being. Not just their chemical components.
Just as the human body cannot be divided, true plant medicine is not divided. Plants are not “collections of active compounds.” They are whole beings with physical, emotional and energetic actions. When we prepare whole-plant medicines by hand, with presence, we are engaging in a relationship. They are not captured or extracted from their essence. They are invited. They accompany us. Connection with nature in its magic and entirety is our birthright, realising we are not separate from nature, but connected deeply.
Below are my favorite herbal allies, which when approached with reverence and respect will support both liver function and emotional movement.
Dandelion Root: Moves stagnation. Helps release irritation and internal pressure. Cooling to heat. Dandelion invites us to hold contrast. To root deeply but also to let go. Can I accept you as you truly are, while at the same time honoring my experience and identifying your impact on me? She helps us to know when to bend and when to boundary. She supports courage to see truth without defensiveness, clears emotional heaviness and promotes emotional integrity.
Burdock Root: Clears old emotional residue stored deep in the body. Strengthens the capacity to face long-held grief, resentment and self-rejection. Encourages steadiness and patience through emotional cleansing.
Schisandra: Gathers scattered emotional energy back into centeredness. Helps bring the spirit back into the body when overwhelmed. Supports resilience, emotional containment and personal boundaries.
Lemon Balm: Softens emotional heat and agitation. Eases irritability that comes from overstimulation or emotional suppression. Reconnects heart and mind so communication is clearer and calmer.
Skullcap: Calms internal turbulence and mental agitation. Helps soothe reactive anger and overstimulated nerves. Supports the spirit in returning to rest, clarity and sober discernment.
Mullein: Opens pathways for stuck emotion, especially anger mixed with grief. Connects breath and voice to truth expression. Helps move suppressed feelings out of the chest so communication and emotional release flow.
Passionflower: Untangles emotional overwhelm and looping thoughts. Helps the spirit soften control and surrender into peace. Aids in processing intense emotional charge without collapse or shutdown.
These plants do not numb the emotions. They help them move. They support clarity, release and restoration.
The liver teaches movement. It teaches truth. It teaches us the cost of suppression.
Support the liver through rest at the right hours. Honour your emotions instead of burying them. Work with plants as whole allies, not ingredients. Healing happens when we allow flow again.
The body is whole. The plant is whole. Healing is wholeness returning.