Welcome to this week's blogpost where we're diving into one of the most powerful yet often overlooked connections in healing: the relationship between meridians, emotions, and the nervous system.

This isn’t just theory. It’s something I teach and witness transform lives in my trauma-informed Yin Yoga & Chinese Meridian Teacher Trainings and my daily classes.

If you’re a yoga teacher, a yoga practitioner, or someone on a healing journey, today’s content will give you a fresh lens to understand your inner world, your emotional patterns, and how yin yoga can help regulate your nervous system through the meridian system of traditional Chinese medicine.

Why Emotions Matter in Trauma-Informed Yin Yoga

In trauma-informed yoga, we understand trauma not as something that happened to you, but as what happens inside you as a result: a nervous system stuck in a dysregulated state (fight, flight freeze or fawn).

One of the most profound, indirect, yet effective ways to regulate the nervous system is by working with emotions. Why? Because emotions are deeply somatic. They live in the body.

And that’s where the meridians come in.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, meridians are energy pathways that run through the body, linking to our organs, emotions, and deep connective tissues. Each meridian apart from its physical aspects, has an emotional aspect. By harmonizing the flow of chi (vital force) in our meridians through yin yoga poses, by tackling the emotional aspect of the meridian on a deep somatic level, we can support the nervous system in its regulation process, without needing to relive or retell our story.

This is especially important in trauma-informed work. Not everyone is ready or able to speak about their trauma. Sometimes we don’t even have memories of what happened to us. But the body remembers, the body keeps the score, the nervous system remembers. And Yin Yoga gives the body a voice.

Our Emotions Are Teachers

In our culture, we often label emotions as "good" or "bad." But from a trauma-informed perspective, there are just emotions.

Every emotion is a message. A teacher. A mirror.

Let’s explore what some of them might be trying to show you:

Anger shows you where your boundaries have been crossed, where you need to reclaim space.
Jealousy tells you what you deeply desire, where you want to be.
Regret is an invitation to forgive yourself.
Anxiety invites you to build deeper trust and self-confidence.
Shame is a part of you that is longing for healing, acceptance, and compassion.
Fear is the gatekeeper to your greatest power yet to be unleashed.
Sadness speaks about a loss that wants to be grieved and processed.
Disappointment is the presence of unspoken expectations and unmet needs.

In Yin, we don’t bypass emotions. We witness and befriend them. Because the most uncomfortable emotions are our greatest teachers.

The Emotional Aspects of the Meridians

Let’s break down the five main meridian pairs and their associated emotional states, and how imbalance versus balance might manifest on an emotional level:

1. Liver / Gallbladder

Imbalance: Anger, frustration, bitterness, rage, aggression.
Balanced: process and release supressed anger, bitterness, resentment, cultivate peace, patience, acceptance

2. Stomach / Spleen

Imbalance: Worry, overthinking, rumination, people-pleasing.
Balanced: Self-worth, healthy & firm boundaries, learn to say no without feelings of guilt and shame.

3. Kidney / Urinary Bladder

Imbalance: Fear, anxiety, insecurity, chronic stress, suspicion
Balanced: Felt sense of safety, deep sense of trust in ourselves and in our relationships.

4. Lungs / Large Intestine

Imbalance: Grief, sadness, difficulty letting go.
Balanced: Hope, comfort, consolation, moving on.

5. Heart / Small Intestine

Imbalance: Sadness, jealousy, co-dependency, abandonment, guilt, shame, anxious or codependent attachments in relationships.
Balanced: Joy, forgiveness, compassion, gratitude, contentment, secure attachment in relationships.

Survival States & Meridian-Emotion Links

Now let’s overlay this with nervous system survival states:

Liver/gallbladder – anger – fight response
Kidney urinary bladder – fear – flight response
Stomach/spleen – worry, overthinking, people pleasing – fawn
Heart/small intestine/san jiao – freeze, shut down – gentle flowy upper body movements

By addressing the emotional aspects of meridians, we can support the nervous system shifting out of the survival states and back into regulation.

Why This Is My Specialty

This emotional-meridian-nervous system connection is at the heart of what I teach in my 100hr Trauma-Informed Yin Yoga & Meridians Teacher Training.

It’s not just about the postures. It’s about the emotional resilience, the energetic anatomy, and the nervous system fluency that comes with the practice.

Most of us were never taught to safely be with our uncomfortable emotions. Trauma informed yin yoga gives us that opportunity.

In this course go deep into how each pose affects specific meridians, what emotions they help process, and how to sequence classes that offer emotional release and nervous system regulation.

If this resonates and you feel called to this work, I invite you take the first gentle steps:

Download my free eBook: Meridians & Emotions in Yin Yoga

Watch my free Trauma Awareness Webinar: Trauma Informed Yoga Foundations

Join my next live 100HR Trauma Informed Yin Yoga & Chinese Meridians Teacher Training in Thailand:

14-23 Dec 2025
20-29 Jan 2026
2-11 Mar 2026

Join the waitlist of my online self-paced 100HR Trauma Informed Yin Yoga & Chinese Meridians Teacher Training launching in December 2025

Join my live 30HR Art of Trauma-Informed Space Holding course in Thailand:

4-8 Oct 2025

Check out what my previous graduates share about their experience:



Teacher Training Demo Video:



Work with me 1-1 for private mentoring

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Thank you for being here, and remember: your emotions are teachers and there for a reason. They are messages. Let’s learn to listen.

With love,
Liz