Exploring Yin and Yang
Yin and Yang are a fundamental philosophical idea that underpins Traditional East Asian medicine and cultures. In Yin Yang theory, every living thing in the world is made up of Yin and Yang. Each element is also categorized as being more Yang or more Yin in nature. For example, daytime is Yang and night time is Yin. Yin is stillness, Yang is movement. Yang is the sky and the immaterial, and Yin is the earth and the material. Our bodies are also understood in this way, and it is one of the ways that Chinese Medicine practitioners understand and treat your symptoms. In the body there are six Yang meridians and six Yin meridians. Additionally, every body part is categorized as Yin or Yang. Yang is your head and Yin is your feet.
The beautiful thing about the concept of Yin and Yang is that although they initially seem to be opposites, they themselves are also made up of Yin and Yang. So that there is Yin in Yang, and Yang in Yin. They are cyclical and constantly transforming into one another.
We can see this play out on every stage of life, from the cycles of the seasons to the course of a single day. Over the course of a day we see transformation of Yin (night) into Yang (day), and Yang (day) back into Yin (night). This constantly transforming nature leads us to ask; where does one start and the other begin? It is said that one is born when the other is at it’s most extreme. So that in the height of Yang at midday when the sun is at its’ peak, Yin is born. Yin then slowly increases to its’ peak at midnight, and in the depth of the night Yang is born. This is a beautiful lesson that can help us to understand the cycles of our own lives. There will be times when we cannot see the light, and in those moments we can hold close the knowledge that this is because light is becoming.
There are endless ways that the concept of Yin and Yang play out in nature and in our bodies. I would like to delve into one example so that you might come to understand how we use this concept in our medicine. When somebody struggles with insomnia it is often because of an imbalance between Yin and Yang. If their body is not cycling through Yin and Yang in accordance with the cycle of day and night, they will have trouble sleeping. It is akin to the Western concept of the circadian rhythm. It may be because there is too much Yang in the body, that the person cannot move into a resting Yin state. In this case Yang is overpowering the ascent of Yin, if the sun didn’t set we would not be able to see the moon. It could also be because Yin is not strong enough to ascend, so that no matter how dim the day gets, the moon doesn’t rise. In either case, the Yang is in excess in comparison to the Yin. This might look like feeling really hot and sweaty at night, overthinking and a feeling that you are wide awake and cannot close your eyes. If we can understand where the problem is, we can address it. If the Yin is too weak to rise, we nourish the Yin. If the Yang is overpowering the Yin, we remove the excess Yang energy. Yin and Yang become balanced and the cycle of Yin and Yang is restored.
