My dad died when I was 5 years old. I know what you’re thinking: “So sad, poor Clara.” Most of my life people have thought or said that to me when I tell them. But I never felt sad, I barely remember my dad, and my mom was the BEST mother EVER! Being a single mother was not easy but she pulled it off by teaching me great values, and did an amazing job raising me (if I say so myself.)

Since I can remember, I’ve had constipation. Over the years, I’ve tried everything to alleviate it. My diet has always been high in fibres, I always drank tons of water, and I’ve always exercised.  So it should have been easy to have a bowel movement daily. Nope, not even close. Massage, and herbal supplements helped temporarily but as soon as I stopped, the constipation would come back.

By now you’re probably thinking, okay your dad died and you’ve had constipation all your life. What’s the relation here? Where am I going with this? Stick with me, I promise there is a point to this story 🙂

When I was in TCM school, I had acupuncture at the students clinic and it helped, but again if I stopped the sessions, my intestine would cease to work. In my last year of school, my husband’s parents came to visit us in Vancouver. One evening, after my hubby told them about his latest work accomplishments, his father affectionately slapped his back and said: “I’m so proud of you, my son!”

That phrase hit me like a bullet in the centre of my chest. My breathing stopped, butterflies danced in my stomach and I started tearing up. I quickly excused myself and left the room. I realized the voice in my brain said to me: “no father will ever say that to you”…

Holly realization! Houston we had a problem! And I needed a solution.

I went to see a counsellor to help me make sense of all this. Until that point I had never thought growing up without a dad was an issue. Apparently I had repressed my emotions. I was angry at my father for leaving my mom, even though he got killed by a drunk driver while walking home after work. I felt guilty for being angry and I felt sad. My counsellor guided me to work through all these feelings. And wouldn’t you know, I’ve NEVER had constipation ever since!

In Chinese medicine, we always look for the root cause, and according to my TCM teachers 70% of all health issues are due to emotions. Over the years in my practice I have seen how emotions affect us all physically. The Large Intestine is the organ that LET’S GO. Once I let go of my feelings regarding my dad, my bowel was happy again. If the cause of chronic long standing constipation is not constitutional, nor diet or exercise, then repressed emotions is often the culprit.

I’ve made a colorful PDF with the TCM patterns for constipation with the acupuncture treatment protocols & diet. You can download it here.

Keep rocking it using TCM,

Clara
TCM Geek

PS: Have you seen my Chinese Medicine Treatments Made Easy book yet? It covers over 160 syndromes treatments using acupuncture points, herbal formulas, ear points, diet and more!