You don’t really need to know what all your organs do, but it can be helpful to have a general idea of where most of them are and what they may be pulling on from the inside.  Below is a picture showing most of your organs in your body followed by a few interesting observations I and some experienced osteopaths have noticed about each one.

Heart       

The heart sits in the center-left portion of chest behind the sternum and between the lungs.  It is held in a bag called the pericardium that attaches to the inside wall of the sternum, the front of the spine and the top of the diaphragm.  It is the physical, pumping engine of your body and the emotional centre of your being.  The activity of your heart will react to both your physical needs and your human experiences.  Exercise will cause it to beat faster and stronger, as can stress and anxiety.  Your body may hold tension around your heart in relation to sadness, that you may perceive as a heavy feeling in your chest, or a tight feeling in your neck or upper back; this is a normal part of being human.

Lungs

Your lungs are two big bags that are attached to the inside of your ribcage by a pleural membrane and are connected to your mouth by your trachea and bronchial tubes.  Your trachea is the windpipe you can feel in the lower front part of your neck, it extends into your upper chest and bifurcates into your bronchial tubes around your second or third ribs.  Your heart is wedged up in between your bronchial tubes making this another key area in both keeping you alive and the experience of how you are feeling.  Similar to your heart, your breathing will react to both the demands of exercise and the level of stress you are experiencing.  The bronchial tubes are an area that people hold a lot of anxious tension that can set off a vicious cycle of constricted breathing, pressure in the chest and more anxiety.  The tension pull from the underlying heart and lungs will typically cause the intercostal muscles to tense and compress the front of the ribs into the sternum generating soreness in the chest.  Chest pain can be related to your heart without being a heart attack, your chest is your emotional centre, and it is helpful to tune in to what you are physically feeling in the area.

Your lungs extend from the soft area above your collar bone, all the way down to the lowest ribs in your low back.  They are separated into a few different lobes and are intimately connected with the mobility of your ribcage and shoulders.  Chest infections, pneumonias, pleuritis, and asthma can all impact how well your ribcage expands and how freely you can lift your arms above your head.  Chronic or resistant shoulder restrictions can very commonly be a combination of muscular tensions from the outside and visceral, fascial pulls from the inside.

Liver

Your liver is the biggest, densest organ in your abdomen.  It sits up under the right side of your ribcage and extends over to the left side to hug up against your stomach.  It is held into your diaphragm by both ligaments and pressure.  The fascial pulls from your liver tend to tug on your right shoulder and occasionally your right hip-pelvis area.  Sudden jarring forces like car accidents can cause strain around the ligaments of the liver and create a torsion pull from the right side of the abdomen that can drive alignment problems and recurrent pains.  Physical traumas can generate subconscious holding patterns in the body, but so can emotional ones, the liver and gallbladder area seem to be a place where people hold on to deep-seated anger.  I first learned about this from the writings of experienced osteopaths John Upledger and Jean Pierre Barral and have since observed it and felt it while working with people and their bodies.  

Kidneys

Your kidneys sit in the upper part of your low back, deep in your abdomen, on either side of your spine.  They are hugged against the hip flexor muscle that attaches to the front of your spine, called your psoas.  The two fist sized organs move up and down a few inches with every breath as your diaphragm changes the pressures in your abdomen.  Their job is to filter fluids to create urine and transfer it to your bladder via long thin tubes called ureters.  Kidney dysfunction, stones and infections are commonly experienced as deep lower back pain that doesn’t seem to respond to stretching and exercise.  

Spleen

Your spleen is behind your stomach under the lower back portion of the left side of your ribcage.  It has a pivotal role in your immune system and can have a similar pull on your left shoulder that your liver can have on your right.  

Uterus

The uterus is held into the centre of the pelvis, behind the bladder and in front of the colon by ligaments attaching into the inside bowl part of the pelvis and by the pressure forces in the abdomen.  It rests underneath all the loops of small intestine and together with the bladder is vulnerable to excess downward pressure from above and/or insufficient muscular support from below.  It is understandably another emotional center for women that can involve a lot of physical and emotional traumas.  The pulls from the ligaments of the uterus can impact both the hips and the SI joints in the pelvis contributing to pain and dysfunction in the area.  Long term stress, and histories of trauma seem to contribute to the body starting to grow uterine tissues outside the uterus in a process called endometriosis that can cause significant pain and dysfunction in the pelvis and abdomen. 

Ovaries

The ovaries are attached to the uterus by fallopian tubes and rest on either side of the lower abdomen.  They are an integral part of a woman’s endocrine system that regulates her hormones and a key part of the reproductive system.  The ovaries are delicate tissues that share space with a busy digestive tract in the lower abdomen.  They can create tension in the lower abdomen that can irritate the colon and digestive process and vice versa, an irritable bowel may impact ovulation, all of which can create low back pain, hip dysfunction and occasionally sciatica.  

Brain

Our brains are our processing centres that try to make sense of the seemingly infinite amount of data we generate with our senses.  Different regions of our brains are responsible for different cognitive and subconscious processes that keep us alive and generate our conscious perceptions.  Our experienced reality is very dependent on how well balanced the chemistry of our brains are and how well connected everything is.  Injuries, diseases, anesthesia, rehabilitation, and psychedelic therapies have all taught us about the complex functioning and neuroplasticity of the brain and nervous system as a whole.  Our brains are held in our skulls, but they are really embedded throughout our bodies via a complex network of nerves and emotionally driven organs. 

Skin

Most people don’t think of skin as an organ, but it is the biggest one in your body.  It seals everything in and helps you experience hot and cold, sharp, and dull.  Skin is the interface between your inner space and the outside world.  I poke needles through people’s skin into their muscles, and use my hands to feel the fascial tensions people hold in their tissues in my work as a physiotherapist.  I have needled scars and seen dramatic changes in people’s alignment and joint mobility as well as triggered intense emotional outbursts.  We hold our “issues in our tissues,” and sometimes it can just take the right person with the right approach to help us access them.

You can learn more in my article Visceral Manipulation: An Integrated Part of Physiotherapy and in my new book Why We Hurt: Understanding How To Be Comfortable In Your Own Body available January 10th on Amazon and AudioBook platforms.

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