It’s all about balance. Yin and Yang are opposite, yet complementary properties. When in balance, harmony is achieved. When they are out of balance, disharmony results.
From the hormones coursing through our bodies to the seasons transitioning through the year, everything possesses both aspects of yin and yang and within all things there is a constant effort to maintain homeostasis, or balance. Just as in nature, our bodies also desire and seek balance. We are designed to maintain balance and every cell, organ, and substance of our body synchronize their efforts to achieve this goal. Despite all of these efforts we don’t always feel balance do we?
While the body, left unopposed, will maintain balance effectively, we often live our lives in a way that makes that job much more challenging. Understanding how to support the body’s natural inclination to balance will help to balance your hormones, the systems of your body, and help you achieve more balanced physical and mental health, whether your goal is to conceive, regulate your cycle, relieve stress or pain, increase your metabolism and energy, or resolve any number of symptoms. When in balance your body and all of the systems within it function optimally. Let’s find out how to make that happen!
Let’s start with some basics to get you accustomed to these concepts of Yin and Yang:
Yin is associated with:
Dark
Moon
Female
Coolness
Internal
Yang is associated with:
Light
Sun
Male
Warmth
External
Yin is nourishing, restorative, calming and regenerative
Yang is activating, dynamic, stimulating, and energizing
Yin activities include:
Meditation
Rest
Reading
Breath work
stretching
Massage
Acupuncture
Qi gong and Tai Chi
Yin Yoga or Restorative Yoga
Sleep
Being outside in nature
Nourishing food
Yang activities include:
Stimulating exercise (running, spinning, biking, HIIT, strength training)
More stimulating forms of yoga
Dancing
Work
Taking Care of Others
Spicy and invigorating foods
Yin and Yang aren’t inherently good or bad but the way we live our lives can cause excesses or deficiencies of one or the other which can lead to imbalance and disfunction.
The balance of our internal systems, hormones, and tissues depends on the way in which we conduct ourselves in the external world. If we fill our day with Yang activities, but neglect to balance it with Yin activities, then we can start to become wired but tired, or just tired, undernourished and depleted. You can imagine how the various systems of our body might respond. When we feel depleted and exhausted there isn’t much energy left for non-essential functions like reproduction, digestion, or even regulation of sleep, metabolism, and temperature.
While Yin can become excessive, as you might expect, it is far less often the case. Sitting around too much, eating too much food or too much junk and processed food, for example, can cause an Excess of Yin. Such a condition can result in depressed mood, energy, and weight gain as well as other signs of stagnation, which results from inadequate stimulation of Yang to keep things flowing smoothly. Because, in this situation, Yin and Yang are out of balance, our hormone reflect this imbalance in the form of cycle disregulation, PMS, menstrual pain, fibroids, cysts, and similar symptoms of congestion and stagnation.
So what’s a girl to do?
Take inventory of your current lifestyle and diet. Make a chart and list the activities that fall into the Yin category and Yang category.
In a given day, what is the ratio of Yin to Yang? Are they balanced? If not, start by considering how you might tweak it in a manageable and sustainable way.
If you find your day is predominantly Yang, what is one Yang activity you can take away or swap for a Yin activity? What is one Yin activity you can start to incorporate or prioritize?
Behavior change takes time and so does reestablishing balance but by slowly shifting the dynamic you will find improved health and a happier body, which naturally desires a state of balance. Don’t we all?