Minding the Gap: Resentment as The Floodway to Sacred Rage: Part 2 of 2
- elementalAdvanced
- May 5
- 7 min read
By: Nicole Rachelle Keane, MS LMT
In my own experience of deep grief, I have become aware of the resentment that has developed within my body and the physical effects of this aggregation, as well as social fallout from the energetics of this deep holding pattern within my own life.
So, having sat with the clinical observations I made while working with my client for nearly one year, and integrating the awareness that it brought to me, I was able to observe that my own physical struggles that were starting to manifest could be a product of deep resentment. These symptoms were superficially related to some liver stagnation and high cholesterol from stress. I have not being as active as I would have preferred to be for the past two years, because of the inordinate amount of stress I have had to navigate during this time. This stress was not only functioning as barrier to having the time to balance my physiology with rest, exercise, and play; it was directly triggering and drawing to the surface my own buried resentment through emotional expressions and reactive responses to life.
The deepest parts of the grief I had experienced from childhood neglect, not feeling seen or heard, and losing most of my family in my 20s, as they passed on from various circumstances was being triggered through the stress I was experiencing in those present moments. During this this time of my mid to late 20s, I also had to process my partner cheating on me when I most needed them in my life. Needless to say, the trauma from all of those years ago was still quite a part of my experience, subsurface.
Confronted with these physiological symptoms, of liver stagnation and high cholesterol, I was at a point where I could tell my higher self was trying to give me the permission to realize I had all I needed within me to heal. With the wisdom I had accumulated over the meantime since those experiences, I finally had the awareness to make that healing happen. Everything seemed to align to the perfect time for me to step on that path of finally tying up all those lose ends, so my body could get on with living from a more balanced and aligned place.
I thought about how I would give myself a treatment to release this resentment I was holding. I could feel exactly where it was... a dull and sometimes sharp pain, toward the top of my right kidney. It has waxed and waned over the past several years. I knew that low potassium levels from high aldosterone had something to do with it, so I would take a small amount of potassium supplements and that would seem to immediately clear up the pain, but the stored emotion was still there, and the pain would come eventually back. I came to realize that the emotional issue of resentment was my main block in life at this time. It was the dominant emotional holding that was keeping my energy down, and preventing me from manifesting the life I was working so hard to be living. It was possibly a dominant reason that my stress response was also being triggered to physiologically result in the cascade of hormones that would release aldosterone and cause the potassium deficiency as well, although proving this would require likely much more scientific analysis.
So, I laid on the floor, on my left side, and guided my right thumb toward the hepatorenal ligament, at the nexus between my kidney and liver. This was not easy to self treat, due to the angles involved, but I could feel my body draw my thumb into that space. Gently, I could feel the integration happen... like a drop in a bucket, waves of release began to happen, the tension pattern began to solve, and what I was experiencing in that space started to wash over me. I could tell that was just the beginning for me; the first step on the path toward meaningful integration and change.
And with that step I started to have an idea come into my awareness that this resentment had a purpose... it was validating in many ways. It was my body and mind recognizing the abuse I had suffered. Grief that turns into resentment always originates from an experience of abuse, which is why it is so important to study while working within a trauma inspired perspective. The resentment I was feeling had a purpose to validate my experience, but the way it was being dealt with, within in my body was not empowering, it was disabling.
The pathway from resentment to sacred rage...
Within the two main treatment theories that I practice and teach, the Tan Cycle and the Yu Angles, I look at the primary location of the emotional or physical symptom, then use these theories to create a treatment plan. In this case, to location of the symptom would be the nexus of the “wills:” the “divine will,” of the zhi, spirit affiliation of the Wood element; and the “free will,” or the Spirit Zhi, located within the kidney. This is at the physical nexus of the kidney and liver, the location of the hepatorenal ligament. Per the Yu Angles treatment theory, the Earth and Fire elements would be recruited to assist in gentle transformation of this symptom.1 That gentle transformation is the state shift from resentment to sacred rage, an embodiment led by the occupation of the self in a way only full awareness and integration of the energy of the Earth element can offer. Through full occupation of the self with a supported and balanced spleen and stomach energy, the body and mind may be balanced through an activation of a the Fire element, and the spontaneous rise of a supported and validated heart energy.
The point GB-22 is very important for activating the alchemical transformation of resentment into sacred rage; this is the floodway that leads to inspired action. Through this point, the resentment that was locked into the space between the Water and Wood elements may shift, being supported by the energy that had been sequestered into the reservoir of the heart divergent channel. From here, the energy within the heart may be supported through the spleen channel of the Earth element, activating the heart divergent channel, calling the waters of emotion out of the reservoir, into the river. The energy can then continue up into Ren-22, as well as the stomach and spleen channels, manifesting through activation of the voice and gaze, in order to affect a change by conveyance of the spirit and the gravity of the situation, initiating the cascading waterfall of inspiring action.
Sacred rage becomes a purposeful call to action, as the channels of the heart inform the bladder meridian and the entirety of the Water element through the Yu Angles affiliation, initiating a transformative process of lifting and supportive energy flow toward inspired action. The yoga pose “child's pose” is also a great way to alchemize resentment into sacred rage, as it activates the area of the spleen meridian between the nexus of the gallbladder meridian and the heart divergent channel. This is most powerful when done with the arms outstretched in an active reach, as opposed to the arms surrendered by the sides of the body. This pose can be both a pose of rest and a call to action. This position also activates the bladder meridian through the slight arching of the back, stimulating the kinetic energy for action from a place of coiled preparation and grounding.
Sacred rage is a pure emotion, like those that children carry, full of passion and purity and a willingness to make the world a better place. We see this energy now in a lot of the child and young adult activists such as Greta Thurnburg.
It is here, in this place of surrender, where we can see how the pivot point of the gallbladder energy, alchemizing the experience of irritation, which the gallbladder is traditionally associated with, into an experience of integrity, another attribute of the gallbladder when it is being assisted and supported by the energy of the heart. Sacred rage is born from integrity, which requires an occupation of the self, and the powerful promise of a better future; a future where not only personal needs are met, but also the needs of the community. In this liminal space, change can be made. This is a place where humans and humanity are respected and appreciated. This is the ultimate end goal of applied sacred rage; it is in this empowered place that we have the potential to heal the wounded Ego of the collective. This place is where a return to balance and integrity can be actualized, seen, and appreciated within the greater community.
The butterfly effect of meaningful change starts within each one of us, and it is our own responsibility to heal what has closed our hearts. The whole will be much greater than the sum of its parts, in this way, and if we all do our individual part to establish our sovereignty, coming into right relationship with the self, then the aggregate energy of society will shift toward unity as well as we are able to confidently speak truth to power and ignite meaningful change.
Keane, Nicole Rachelle. The Tao of the Polyvagal Theory: A Five Element Perspective for a Future of Healing the Spirit and Balancing the Autonomic Nervous System. Gratitude Healing Arts, LLC; 2021
Raichle, Marcus A. (2025, February 8). The Brain's Dark Energy. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-brains-dark-energy/
Keane, Nicole Rachelle. The elementalAdvanced Method. Elemental Manual Meridian Thery and Techniques: The Wood Element. https://www.elementaladvancedmt.com/courses
Bertolero, Max; Dani S. Bassett. (2025, February 9). How The Mind Emerges From The Brains Complex Networks. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-mind-emerges-from-the-brains-complex-networks/
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