LIFE LESSONS

My bones are angry, and so is my liver

I’M sitting in a dimly-lit treatment room, redolent of oil, eyeing the table beside me and wondering what exactly happens on it. Across from me sits the therapist who is promising to ‘zero balance’ me, a unique mix of osteopathy and therapy that is apparently very useful to people who are busy and stressed. I am both.

After some questions about my lifestyle (unhealthy) and how I manage stress (badly), I lie down, fully clothed and she starts by pulling and cracking my toes. Slowly, she moves around my body applying pressure. The movements are slow. Deliberate. But powerful.

Next she puts her hands under my lower back. All of this time she is ‘listening to my body’ and my bones are telling her that I’m angry. This isn’t unusual, she says. It’s common to find tension ‘stuck’ behind the right shoulder — this relates to the liver, which emotionally is linked to anger. That my liver is angry is not much of a surprise, I treat it like shit. “There’s a lot going on here,” she says when she touches my temples, by which she means I’m stressed out. Before I leave she offers some good advice on dealing with anger: “Toddlers get it all out. We should do the same.”

On my way home, I’m not sure how I feel. Insular maybe. Quiet definitely. But I do feel something I haven’t experienced in a long time — a deep sense of calm. In the weeks that follow, I take her advice and try some toddler-style action to thwart my anger. I book sessions with a personal trainer. I exercise and go to a very silly dance class in an attempt to ‘get it all out’. I think it might be working.

My body aches but I feel less angry — although it’ll probably be a while before my liver forgives me.