Protecting the Sovereign: The Wisdom of the Pericardium

Protecting the sovereign: The Wisdom of the Pericardium
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[00:00:00] Today, we are going to talk about one of my favourite organ relationships in Chinese medicine, the relationship between the heart and the pericardium. Now, these are not paired organs, but they do have a really special and unique relationship, or at least I think so, in Chinese medicine. And I remember when I first started learning about this relationship between the heart and the pericardium, how it just pulled on my heartstrings.

So that’s what we’re gonna talk about today. Stay tuned. Okay, my friends. Welcome back. Just a heads-up that this is the last episode of the season, and then we take a summer break, and then I will be back with you in the fall, in September. I don’t know the exact date in September off the top of my head, but probably somewhere around mid-September is when we will start [00:01:00] again with the pod.

And I know that some of you that are obsessive regular listeners are going wah-wah about that right now, but please know, my friends, that breaks are good. I need breaks. You need breaks. Not only do I need a break, which is why I take a summer break, but also summer’s the smartest time to take this break because podcast listenership tends to drop in the summer ’cause everyone’s busy.

If you have kids, you’re doing stuff, you got vacations, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. So if you are a regular listener and you’re kind of upset about that, my apologies. I promise I’ll be back in the fall. I shouldn’t promise. Do not have a, you know, fortune teller’s ball, but my intention is fully to be back in the fall.

So I just wanted to mention that. And the reason that I thought this would be the perfect sort of end to, the season for this one is because we are a- we are approaching summer, [00:02:00] or in summer by the time you listen to this, and, , summer is connected to the fire element, which I’ve talked about in other episodes and I will include links in the episode notes to that.

Both the heart and the pericardium they are fire organs. And so I thought, this would be a great way to round out the last episode of the season since it’s fire time of year, if you’re listening to this live. Now, for those of you in the land down under, my apologies.

It’s opposite land for you there, so you are not entering summer or in summer. Feel free to bookmark this and come back when you are, or just listen and know that this will be relevant to you later. And if you’re listening to this not at the time of its release, it may also not be summer for you. But I digress.

So the relationship between the heart and the pericardium, and the organ relationship between the two. , One of the things that I , really love about Chinese medicine and that made me fall in love with Chinese [00:03:00] medicine is this role of , the organs having, like, a physical function, but also they have this philosophical connection and jobs that they do and relationships to each other.

And that is… That and five element theory is why I really fell in love with this medicine, and, am still in love with it today. So that’s what we’re gonna talk about. Before we get into that, my friends, if you are listening to this live, the fall 2026 round of my 100-hour therapeutic yin yoga teacher training is open for registration.

I do not know how many spots will be left by the time that you hear this, but if you are interested in joining that, there is a link in the episode notes that you can click and join that. It just says get on the w- it’s the one that says get on the wait list. If you go to that page, if registration’s open and you wanna join this current round, you just go ahead.

[00:04:00] And if you go to that page and there is no sign-up button, it’s because we’re in between registrations of the fall and the spring, and so you can just get on the wait list either in the top picture, there’s a little button in my photograph at the top, or at the bottom. Or if you hang out for a few minutes, there will be a light pop-up.

So whether you wanna join this current round, there will be a sign-up button there, unless it’s full, in which case I will take that off. , Or if you wanna join a future round, get on the wait list, because not only do you get advanced registration notice if you’re on the wait list, you get access to the first five people to sign up discount code, and you get a bunch of little goodies from me along the way.

So make sure that you do that. And for those of you who are not on the wait list but are on my email list and get the podcast, , emailed to you-

Then y- I’ll be back with you in the fall. I [00:05:00] may do, I haven’t decided yet at the time of this recording, I might spotlight some of the episodes that, really should have got way more attention in your inboxes over the summer. The ones where I’m like, “Damn, that was a good episode, but it didn’t get as many listens as some of the other ones.”

We’ll call them our hidden gem episodes. So , I’m considering doing that and sending that out, , every week as well. For those of you that are on the email list, or if you’re just on the socials, I’ll be posting those in that Yin Yoga Network group on Facebook. So if you are in there, you can still expect to see an episode spotlight every week while we’re on the summer break.

, At least for, , July and August, and then beginning of September I will probably take a break. That’s my annual time to take a vacation is the beginning of September. Okay. The last thing to let you know about, if you are new around these parts or if you’ve just forgotten, is that these are adult podcasts with adult language and adult subject matter, and that I have [00:06:00] the soul of a mermaid and the mouth of a sailor.

So if you have small people around, please put some headphones in now. There’s no guarantee that there will be colorful language, but there’s also no guarantee there won’t be. The other thing to mention if you’re watching this on YouTube is, once again, I have notes to keep me on track. S- Those of you who know me well know I have ADD, and , if I don’t have some sort of a format, I will talk in circles and forget to come back to where we started in the circle, or come back, but come back way later after I’ve done many side quests.

So this is to help me stay on topic and organized. Okay, my friends Let’s talk about the heart and the pericardium in Chinese medicine or Daoism. Protection, vulnerability, boundaries, and the Dao of staying open but not too open

ever considered what protects your heart? And at what [00:07:00] point does that protection become quietly isolation or being rigid or closed off? In Chinese medicine, the heart is considered the sovereign, sometimes the emperor, but I prefer to use the gender neutral word of sovereign, the seat of consciousness and spirit.

But the heart is never left unguarded. Surrounding is the pericardium, the protector of the heart. And I think there’s something profoundly human about this relationship

We long to connect, we feel being hurt, we want openness without overwhelm, we want boundaries without being shut down

And this can be really tough in our modern emotional life. We can have so much going on in the world around us that our Shen [00:08:00] gets scattered or our Shen… Our heart qi gets scattered or the Shen leaves its nest. I’ll talk more about that in a moment

‘Cause we are in such a busy, overwhelmed, loud, go, go, go society So the heart is the sovereign. The heart is the sovereign and the leader of all the other organs. All the organs are in service to the heart. The physiological functions of the heart according to Chinese medicine ac- include circulating blood of our body, but the heart is also responsible for our r- our spiritual and mental activities.

In Chinese medicine, the heart is the abode of our Shen

Shen is sometimes translated as mind, but it’s important to note that the view of the mind in Daoist thought [00:09:00] is not the same as how we view the mind in Western culture, as, like, separate from our hearts. We think of, , body, mind, spirit, or heart and head as a dichotomy In Chinese medicine, the Shen is equivalent to what we might think of as mental function and has the role of emotion.

So it has the mental function, but also the role of emotion. So although in the West we often separate our body, mind, and spirit, in Chinese medicine, the heart and the mind are one, and that oneness is connected to our Shen The Shen is what allows our inner radiance to shine outward.

It’s the alertness of our mind and the inner quality and vitality that can shine out through our eyes. This brightness in the eyes is called our Shen Ming. The Shen Ming is that glow or spark or radiance of life and fire, [00:10:00] and it shows up as enthusiasm and sparkle in the eyes. The heart stores the Shen, and the Shen affects our ability to sleep.

When the Shen goes outward during the day, it engages with the world, and then at night the Shen is supposed to return to the heart and rest in the blood of the heart

Shen affects our short-term memory, can govern ability to think clearly, and if the Shen is weak, we can’t think clearly and may be forgetful or our concentration may wander off. And if our Shen isn’t settled in the heart, we can have difficulty falling asleep, have dream-disturbed sleep, or we may experience anxiety So often, our shen in Chinese medicine or Daoism is thought of as a bird, and your heart is like the nest.

And so this little bird flies out throughout the day to do [00:11:00] what needs to be done to, engage with the world. But if that we don’t have a good solid nest of that blood in the heart, then the little bird can’t come back and rest, and it leaves again

And this is when we can have difficulty falling asleep, dream-disturbed sleep, anxiety

So the heart houses the Shen

And that Shen is reflected in our eyes, and it influences our emotional stability, our clarity of thought, sleep, connection, joy, our relational warmth, inner coherence, and the ability to feel settled in oneself A calm and rooted Shen often presents as grounded presence, clear eyes, emotional steadiness, [00:12:00] authenticity, a calm responsiveness rather than reactivity, the feeling that someone is fully inhabiting themselves

A disturbed or scattered Shen might manifest as anxiety, agitation, insomnia, racing thoughts, . being emotionally volatile, disassociation, inability to focus, a feeling of being spiritually untethered, maybe constantly s- seeking stimulation or distraction. Taoist philosophy often points towards conditions that allow the Shen to settle.

Conditions like stillness, simplicity, rhythm, time in nature, quiet, less forcing, less striving, living in accordance with your [00:13:00] nature instead of performing or trying to live up to social conditioning

Many of us are so exhausted, not only physically but also spiritually, that our Shen never really lands anywhere And so our goal hopefully if we’re working with this isn’t merely to calm the mind, but it’s to create conditions where the spirit feels safe enough to settle

So perhaps the deepest form of healing is not becoming more impressive, but becoming more internally coherent

And these long held poses in Yin Yoga and this quiet practice can reveal the state of Shen. That’s why some people discover how difficult it is to just be with themselves in silence[00:14:00]

That resonance or rebound, as my teacher calls it, may become a practice that allows the Shen to settle rather than constantly dispersing the attention outward

So yin can become less about stretching our tissues or working with our fascia. Not that that’s a bad thing, we love that, but about observing the condition of one’s inner landscape

And taking the time to discover what actually settles your spirit. Not distracts it, not entertains it, but truly settles it

clarity, presence, coherence, and joy. The heart organizes the whole system

And then what can happen when the sovereign is no longer leading, when the heart is [00:15:00] over-affected and can no longer sit in the seat of being sovereign, or that little bird can no longer rest, the Shen can no longer rest in the heart Well, this is common because of our overstimulation, distraction, constant noise, social media, productivity culture, our disconnection from our own intuition and our own voice

So many of us are living from this anxious mind, and the Shen has flown the coop or left the nest due to the noise of our world

But in Yin and Daoism, we can explore inner listening, stillness, simplicity, attunement[00:16:00]

So that’s a little bit about the heart

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And then we have the pericardium In Chinese medicine, the heart is considered so precious that it must be protected by another system entirely, the pericardium The pericardium has a role anatomically, just like the other channels, and a mental emotional role as well, in this case as the heart protector.

So the physical role of the, of the pericardium, which is made up of two layers, a tough external layer, this is anatomy here, of fibrous pericardium, and a thin, more internal layer called a serous pericardium And these inner and outer layers are part of our actual anatomical pericardium. So we actually do have something called the pericardium that’s around the heart.

And so the pericardium is both literal [00:17:00] and symbolic. Symbolically, it is the heart protector.. in Chinese medicine, sometimes they refer to the pericardium as a wall or a fence around the heart. I like to think of it more as a fence than a wall. The pericardium so not only physically protects the heart, but also energetically shields the heart from damage and disruption by excessive emotions from other organs and external sources.

In the Chinese medicine view of health, extreme emotional states of any kind, whether we in our culture consider them positive or negative, are disruptive to harmony and a cause for disease. So without the pericardium to protect it, the heart could be gravely ener- injured. So without the pericardium to protect it, the heart could be gravely injured by everyday emotional fluctuations.[00:18:00]

So there are some signs of disharmony or weakness in the pericardium. . A pericardium in excess or over- overdoing it is being emotionally guarded or an inability to feel or be vulnerable, maybe a fear of intimacy, irrational relationship fears, like the ones that are not based on fact, but maybe on past experience, too much joy, incessant laughter, giggling out of control, anxiety, or mental disturbance.

Now, I’m gonna just touch on the too much joy, because I know a lot of people are hearing that right now going, “Say what? How could you have too much joy?” So think about this as an example. If you’ve ever watched a TV show where somebody just won, like, a big prize, like maybe a brand-new car or a house or something, and they, like, go into that state of shock, and then they faint.

That’s too much joy, y’all. Their poor nervous systems were not ready. [00:19:00] Their Shen was not ready to handle that degree of joy, and so they, whoop, pass out. So that’s an example of too much joy. Remember, in the Chinese medic- medicine system, any emotion overdone can be problematic, even the ones that we consider, air quotes, “positive”.

On the other side of the coin, other signs of deficiency in the pericardium could be excessive vulnerability. You know that person that wears their heart on their sleeve? Or inappropriate int- intimacy, and I don’t just mean physical intimacy, but too much too soon. You know that person that gives you their whole life story and you’re just standing with them at the bus stop?

Or depression. It can also manifest as melancholy or profound sadness

So Chinese medicine perspective of the heart and the pericardium. The pericardium is the protector, emotionally and energetically filtering out, protecting the [00:20:00] heart from shock, and mediating intimacy and connection Pericardium is our boundaries, our discernment, our relational safety, and our energetic permeability Healthy boundaries versus emotional shutdown Having healthy boundaries would be a sign of a pericardium that is in harmony.

But if it’s in disharmony, could have emotional shutdown. The difference between discernment and defensiveness, and protection versus armor So one thing you could consider here , is your p- pericardium protecting your heart or imprisoning it? One of my favorite, um, poets, authors, speakers, et cetera, [00:21:00] her name is Danielle LaPorte.

She’s a Canadian, y’all, . and she has this quote that when she first came out with it was stated a little more strongly, so I’m gonna use the OG version. I think she softened it a bit, but she said, “Wide, wide open, gentle heart, big fucking fence.” So that is the relationship that I think of when I think of the heart and the pericardium.

Yes, we want a wide open, gentle heart, and we also need the pericardium paying attention to what is allowed to have an audience with the heart. If you think of the heart as the emperor or empress, it’s the pericardium that decides who’s coming in to get to speak to the emperor or the empress

So a question you might wanna consider , is your pericardium protecting your heart or imprisoning it?

Now some of [00:22:00] this, the way this can go awry is hyper-independence, cynicism, emotional numbness, intellectualizing feelings but not being able to feel them, always being air quote, “fine,” or avoiding vulnerability. So sometimes the defenses that once protected us eventually just become instead of a fence, they become a wall and they prevent intimacy Taoism has a different relationship with protection than a modern culture does Taoist thoughts would be yielding, softness, responsiveness, flexibility over rigidity.

Taoism rarely celebrates hardening, controlling, or over-defending. Instead, permeability, adaptability, flow

Boundaries versus [00:23:00] walls. So as I mentioned, one of the reasons I like to think of the pericardium as a fence, not a wall, is because it’s more adaptable. It’s more movable. . Healthy boundaries are alive and responsive like a fence. However, a wall is rigid and unmoving

Some people are overly open and some people close entirely, and the wisdom may live in the conscious permeability or the harmony of knowing when to be open and when not to be open

So the pericardium, a healthy pericardium is not a fortress. It’s more like a wise gatekeeper

It knows that you cannot force trust. [00:24:00] Healing unfolds in timing, and that openness cannot be manufactured

Despite all of our protections, the heart still longs for connection

Heart is connected to our joy, our intimacy, our resonance, our laughter, companionship, emotional warmth. In fact, people who are fire personalities are very much wanting to be connected. They’re very social and,, they really want that human connection, that nourishment of authentic human connection, eye contact, presence, of being witnessed But if you compare that to our modern loneliness, our digital overstimulation, we’re supposedly more connected than ever, yet totally not connected at all.

Performative identity, curated connection, which can cause loneliness, nervous system exhaustion[00:25:00]

So we have to start asking ourselves, what does genuine heart connection actually feel like in our body? Humans are not separate from nature, from one another, or from relational exchange. And maybe the heart suffers in isolation because it was actually never meant to exist alone But of course, connection always carries risks

The wounded heart and our emotional armor We all have heartbreak, betrayal, grief, abandonment, disappointment, emotional shock. And remember, shock affects the heart and the pericardium . And unresolved emotional pain alters our openness. We can develop emotional armor. We can withdraw. We can have hyper-control.

We can detach. We can, “I don’t need anyone.” We can do [00:26:00] spiritual bypassing See, armor protects us from pain, but it also protects us from intimacy and heartfelt connection

Protection becomes problematic when nothing can enter, when vulnerability disappears, when emotional flow stagnates So sometimes healing is not learning how to never be hurt again. Sometimes healing is learning how to remain open after being hurt. And in Yin Yoga, we can counter this directly. I’m sure many of us have…

teachers have seen, you know, people move to tears or finally able to process their emotions when they have the soft, quiet, brave space of a Yin Yoga practice

Maybe we can reframe this term we often hear in yoga circles of heart opening. It’s overly [00:27:00] simplistic language thinking of our physical heart or the center of our chest But actually heart opening practices might evoke tenderness, fear, vulnerability, emotional release.

And openness is not always euphoric, and sometimes it’s very challenging

But the role of stillness in yin reveals our patterns, our guarding, our restlessness, our discomfort with vulnerability. It gives us enough silence to notice the armor we didn’t realize we were wearing And then this resonance or rebound time gives us that integration, listening, nervous system settling, and emotional digestion

And then beneath all of this might be the deeper question of [00:28:00] what does it mean to live from our heart?

Can we be aware of our Shen as that little bird that goes out from the nest during the day but needs that nest to come back and rest in?

We bring some more calmness and grounded joy, coherence, and inner quiet into our lives instead of this constant stimulation, striving, performative living, and fragmentation

Perhaps as we go on in our life and we experience more pain and more heartbreak, we develop a maturity that is not becoming harder or more closed off, but instead becoming more deeply rooted without losing our softness Openness with discernment, boundaries without isolation, vulnerability [00:29:00] without collapse

A wise heart is not naive, but it is also not closed So how can we slow things down? Maybe the goal isn’t to become invulnerable. Maybe the goal here could be to be honest enough to know what protects the heart and what imprisons it In Daoism, softness is not weakness. Perhaps there’s a way to remain open without abandoning ourselves. And that is the work of the heart.

And the pericardium reminds us that the wisdom is not from having no boundaries, but in learning how to stay connected without losing our center . the relationship between the heart and the pericardium.

The p- the heart is the sovereign, houses our Shen, that little bird that has a nest to rest in. And if [00:30:00] the pericardium is not helping out enough, then the heart, that little bird can leave too often, too easily, and not come back to rest in the blood of the heart So it’s our pericardium that protects this sovereign, the heart.

And hopefully it does it without becoming overly protected or too rigid, like a wall instead of a fence

I have some journal questions for you. So if you are driving or walking, cleaning your house, you could pause this episode now and come back to it when you have a pen and a piece of paper. Those of you that are able to bust out a pen and paper, here are some questions that we might wanna consider. You could write these down and then ponder them What protects your [00:31:00] heart?

What protects your heart? Where have your boundaries become walls?

Where have your boundaries become walls?

What helps you feel emotionally safe?

What happens in stillness for you?

What happens in stillness for you?

Do you tend to be overly open, heart on the sleeve, giving it all away? Or overly protected, inability to be vulnerable or open or connect with people

And what would it mean to soften without collapsing? What would it mean to soften without [00:32:00] collapsing

Can vulnerability and discernment coexist? Can vulnerability and discernment coexist

And then what nourishes your Shen? What nourishes your Shen? I’ll give you a hint. It’s the opposite of all of the hustle culture stuff, the moving outward, the busying, the productivity, the, you know, social media, the scrolling, all of that. It’s the opposite of that. Could you bring more of that into your life?

And I think in closing for this episode, I will once again quote one of my favorite authors and poets, Ms. Danielle LaPorte, in her original version of this quote: [00:33:00] “Wide open gentle heart. Big fucking fence.”

I hope you found that intriguing, my friends, for those of you who like a little mind tickle and a little Chinese medicine philosophy. And again, this is the last episode of the current season, and we will be back in September. This is 2026 in case you’re listening to this later. And if you are wanting to join my training, registration’s open if you’re listening to this live.

The link is in the episode notes. Just click on the link that says get on the wait list. That’ll take you right to the page where you can either sign up if you wanna do that currently, or if you’re listening to this later or you wanna sign up eventually but not this time, you can also get on the wait list on that same page just by looking up to my photo or all the way down at the bottom and entering your name and email.

And if you’re interested in joining this round of training, you can [00:34:00] just read and then click the button that says sign up and continue on from there. All right, my friends, I hope that you are all well. And until we meet again, bye for now.