A guest column by Soma Farzaneh - body therapist, dance educator, and founder of Soma Qi Gong. Here, she shares a profound personal experience that has shaped her life's journey and explains, from a therapeutic perspective, how we can transform blocked emotions such as anger into healthy life energy (Qi).
Table of Contents
- Moments that change us
- The moment the knuckles locked
- When Qi implodes
- Soma Qi Gong: the art of transformation
- About Soma Farzaneh
Moments that change us
There are perhaps only two or three moments in life that we remember not as a distant memory, but as a state of pure being. Moments in which something ancient and instinctual breaks through the body with such force that the person you were up until that very breath cannot remain the same afterward.
For me, that state of being was rage.
Not the ordinary anger of wounded pride or daily conflict. But an archaic, physical force. As a child, I was peaceful. I often sensed the anger of others long before it reached the surface, like a distant rumble before a summer thunderstorm. That sensitivity protected me for many years.
Until I was fourteen.
The moment the knuckles locked
I was dancing outside, in front of a mosque. My body felt free, moving without apology, simply following the pulse of life inside me. Then, three men stopped me.
First came the questions. Then the humiliation. Finally, the slow poison of sexualized insults. Their words were not just meant to silence me. They were meant to break me. To remind me that my body, my freedom, and my joy were supposed to exist strictly under the authority of their gaze.
In that exact moment, something exploded inside me that I had never known before. An intensity that still makes me tremble when I look back. If my hands had been free, I would have killed in that exact moment. Not out of a desire for destruction, but because something deep within me fiercely refused to be annihilated.
But I was holding seashells in my hands, my fingers could not open. The force was trapped inside my body. It had no outer outlet.
My jaw locked. The muscles in my throat, my mouth, and my chest constricted, gathering around one single, absolute purpose: sound. If my hands could not strike, my voice would.
The scream that tore from my lungs did not feel human. It was ancient. Animalistic. Female. Terrifying to those who heard it. It was not the scream of a victim. It was the scream of something defending its fundamental right to exist.
Woman. Life. Freedom. In its purest, most unfiltered form.
The men could not tolerate that sound. They wanted fear and obedience; instead, they met a primal force. To silence me, they pressed burning pain into my bare arm. A punishment. I still carry the scar today. And I have never hated it. Because it reminds me that on that day, fear did not win.
When Qi implodes
Today, working as a somatic therapist, I look back at this experience through a different lens. In our society, rage, especially in women, is viewed as ugly, destructive, and dangerous. We learn early on to smile it away, swallow it down, and keep a lid on it.
From a therapeutic standpoint, this is a catastrophe. At its core, rage is nothing less than highly concentrated life force (Qi). It is the energy of protection, of moving forward, of drawing healthy boundaries. When we suppress this power, it doesn't disappear. It implodes.
When the Qi of rage is not allowed to flow, it stagnates and blocks the body. It manifests as chronic tension in the neck, as nocturnal teeth grinding (jaw clenching), as shallow breathing in a locked diaphragm, or possibly as emotional exhaustion and depression. The closed fist of the past that found no direction ends up turning against ourselves.
Soma Qi Gong: the art of transformation
We cannot scream in daily life every time our boundaries are crossed. But we also cannot allow the power within us to freeze. The question is: How do we channel this primal force without becoming destructive, neither to others nor to ourselves?
This is exactly where my work at Soma Qi Gong comes in.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), anger is associated with the Wood element and the Liver organ system. Wood wants to grow, to expand, to strive powerfully upward. If it becomes rigid or caged, it snaps or lashes out wildly. Gong translates to "cultivation" or "purposeful work."
Through this practice, we learn not to judge or suppress the fiery energy of rage, but to move it through the body using precise, fluid movements, deep breathing, and clear focus.
We open the clenched fists. We release the pressure from the jaw. We take the energy of the boundary and transform it into inner stability, clarity, and a dignified presence.
Your scars and your rage are not proof that you are damaged. They are proof that you have the strength to resist, to grow, and to return home to yourself. Without ever making yourself smaller again.
About Soma Farzaneh
In her practice, Soma Farzaneh helps people release deep-seated blockages and tap into their full potential by combining modern body therapy with traditional qigong.
Would you like to learn to understand your emotions and cultivate the flow of your inner Qi? Learn more about Soma's work, current workshops, and individual sessions: https://qigongsoma.com/