TCM Basics 101: Root for illnesses: Grief
If one is sad and unhappy for a long period of time, all sorts of illnesses can manifest. But with Grief, the closest associated organ affected is the Lungs.
People holding lots of grief in them breathe in a very shallow way. This is because when one cries, the action that accompanies is sobbing and shortness in breaths. So when your breath is short and shallow, you are not able to supply enough air to your body. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, there is a phrase called “悲则气消”. In translation, it says Grief reduces Qi, which makes absolute sense in the pictorial interpretation.
In scientific interpretation, when one grieves and shallows their breath for too long, the amount of oxygen supplied to the body will reduce. And when that happens, the body is deoxygenated most of the time and you should know by now that toxins, inflammations, growths, tumours, cancers love and thrive in stale, poor circulated, lack of oxygen environment. THAT is how illness developed from there. Read more about Emotional Roots of Cancer here.
Grief is a normal human emotion because it is an outlet for sadness.
But grieving for long periods of time will suck the energy out of any human. And the Lungs are one of the most vital and vulnerable organs which are the first to be susceptible to ANY illnesses. Many a times, people do not die from the original illness but they die of infection to the Lungs.