Shen is commonly understood as the Spirit, our Soul expression, or Consciousness—it's the most refined of the Three Treasures energies. It manifests as the expression of the spiritual, emotional, and mental well-being of an individual.

Shen is your connection to Spirit, to your higher self, or to your concept of a higher power, and it's the most important energy in the body to cultivate and protect as it guides our lives and actions in everything we do.

In Classical Chinese Medicine, we talk about the Shen residing or being housed in the Heart. One of the clearest manifestations of this is that during the day when you're active, your spirit is expressing itself.

It’s what you put forth in the world on a day-to-day basis.

At night, in the Yin part of the day, the Shen starts to retreat and consolidate in the Heart, which is why we rest at night. But that doesn't always happen...

A good example is someone dealing with insomnia.

Much of the time, the reason for this is agitation of the heart; the Shen doesn't feel comfortable residing there, so it stays out. Then you can't turn your mind off, and you get that constant thinking all the time. That's an obvious sign of restless Shen.

Any kind of emotional instability, disharmony, or feelings of being easily frustrated or emotionally fragile or sensitive to many things is a sign of Shen imbalance.

One of the major factors impacting the Shen in our society today is stress, which not only disturbs the Shen but also affects another organ system in the body—the Liver—and this is something that should be addressed.

When we talk about the emotions and the organ systems, there's always going to be a Yin and Yang aspect.

That "Joie de Vivre" and Love of Living Life

Having really good Shen and what the French call "joie de vivre"—that love of living—represents Yang Shen energy because it's very expansive and outgoing.

On the opposite end, depression, anxiety, and fear represent very contracting Shen energy and can cause you to shrink inside yourself.

It's a very stuck energy as well—not moving, self-obsessed, and focusing continually on the negative and what's wrong.