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In this podcast I’ll be exploring the Two Universal Forces of Yin and Yang:
- I’ll explain the philosophy of Yin and Yang and the differences between them
- I’ll talk about how imbalances in the forces of Yin and Yang affect your life
- Finally I’ll share some tips on how you can better manage your Yin and Yang energies
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Yin and Yang are an ancient Chinese concept that describes the fundamental principles of the Universe.
Yin and Yang are opposite yet complementary forces. They are two very distinct energies, but at the same time one cannot exist without the other and together they form a whole.
Within Yin there is always the potential for Yang and within Yang the possibilities for Yin also exist.
Life is an ever-changing process and the forces of Yin and Yang are always in a state of flow, constantly changing from one into the other.
It is this interdependent relationship that gives rise to the experience of the universe. For example day would not exist without night. You wouldn’t feel pleasure if you didn’t know pain. Energy transforms into matter and the breakdown of matter reverts back to energy. Life would not exist without death and it is through death that new life is born.
The Yin-Yang symbol called Taijitu represents these concepts perfectly. The outer circle represents the wholeness of the universe. The contrasting black and white colours they show the opposite nature of the Yin and Yang energies. The two small dots in the circle show how Yin contains the seed of Yang and Yang contains the seed of Yin.
Yin represents:
- The Feminine
- The Dark
- Wet
- Coolness
- Slow
- Accumulation and
- Passivity
Yang represents:
- The Masculine
- The Light
- Dry
- Heat
- Fast
- Spending and
- Activity
As I said before Yin and Yang are always transforming from one to the other and there’s a balancing act that’s going on here. A perfect balance can never be reached though. Yin and Yang are not seeking equality, but harmony. They are not two separated and equal forces in exact balance with each other. When Yin and Yang are in harmony together they form one connected energy that’s in flow with the universe.
How this relates to your life, happiness, and health is that even without knowing it you’ve experienced this harmony of Yin-Yang as well as its constant shift in balance.
Think about times in your life where you had no worries and concerns and everything just seemed to go your way as if you were in flow with the universe. How about the fact when you’re sick you know you’re sick, but when you’re feeling really good and happy and have no health issues you don’t know it as you’re too busy having fun and feeling awesome living out your life.
This is Yin and Yang in harmony in your life.
Now if you’re finding life a bit of a struggle at the moment in terms of health, wealth, love, and happiness it is most likely because these two forces are out of balance with each other where one is overriding the other.
There are 4 possible states of Yin and Yang imbalance:
- Excess Yin
- Excess Yang
- Deficient Yin
- Deficient Yang
Remember in the previous podcast episode I did on stress I talked about how there are two parts of the nervous system that deals with stress. The parasympathetic nervous system relates to digestion, elimination, growth, and repair as well as feeling calm and connected. The sympathetic nervous system relates to increased heart rate and blood pressure as well as feeling stressed. Being in a parasympathetic state is anabolic meaning building up, whereas being in a sympathetic state is catabolic meaning breaking down.
So when your PNS is activated your body shifts into a state of accumulation. This is Yin.
When your SNS is activated your body shifts into a spending state. This is Yang.
If you are excess or deficient in either Yin or Yang of calm or stress this imbalance will cause dysfunction in your body.
So for example if you’re a couch potato who watches a lot of TV or plays a lot of video games or if you work in a place where you sit for most of the day then you will be very much in excess of Yin energy and if this Yin energy isn’t used up by moving your body, by going outside for a walk or by exercising this will eventually change into Yang energy where if you don’t use your muscles and bones your body starts to break these down. Use it or lose it right.
Conversely if you’re an athlete that consistently trains and exercises, but suddenly find that you are unable to beat your previous personal record this could be because of overtraining. Wanting to work out over and beyond what your body and the nervous system can handle is an expression of excess Yang. If you don’t have planned rest days allowing your body to recover you will not have enough Yin energy to repair what is being damaged during your workouts. So you will need to do more energy building exercises aka work-in exercises in order to accumulate enough energy to do your workouts.
I talked about work-in exercises in the movement episode and you can find out more about energy building exercises in the book How To Eat, Move And Be Healthy! by holistic health practitioner Paul Chek.
Other examples of Yin-Yang imbalances: If you’re feeling tired or cold or low on energy all the time this is most likely due to too much Yang energy as a result of too much stress caused by working long hours or being in difficult relationships. When your body is in a state of chronic stress where your SNS is running rampant all the time this Yang energy eventually will shift from where you can burn candles at both ends and work more on less sleep to Yin energy where you can barely get yourself out of bed each morning.
Chronic stress in your life will lead to chronic inflammation in your body which is the major cause of most if not all chronic diseases today.
Food sensitivities and eating fake foods can put your body into a sympathetic state as well leading to inflammation. I ate gluten my whole life and I didn’t even know until recently that my body is sensitive to gluten. This protein molecule found in certain grains was causing inflammation inside my body. It affected my moods and my thinking and definitely shifted me and my entire life into a Yang hot and expressive state.
Chronic inflammation is heat which is Yang and no fire lasts forever. Even the sun which is very Yang compared to Earth will one day burn up and die and become a black hole which is Yin.
So how do you lower inflammation in your body? How do you balance these two forces in your life?
Well firstly realise you can seek balance between them, but it’s being in harmony with both of these forces that is the ultimate goal.
Living a holistic lifestyle where you drink real water, eat real food, move often and move really heavy things, get real sleep, breathe real breaths, do a real detox, get out in nature, and have loving healthy relationships with others and your self this is the sure fire way to balance the Yin and the Yang forces in your life.
Luckily I have produced episodes that speak to each of these topics in more detail so if you’re unsure as to what real water or what real food is or what types of movements you should be doing or any of the other holistic lifestyle aspects I mentioned check out the previous Whole Guidance podcast episodes at wholeguidance.com/blog.
Right now you may be living your life looking to achieve balance by attempting to reach some destination in one particular area of your life. But unfortunately even if you were to reach that point of balance and get what you wanted that balance will eventually shift and change to something you may not be expecting or wanting.
Instead seek harmony on your path to balancing together all aspects of your life including health, wealth, love, and happiness knowing full well that balance will not last forever.
It is only when all aspects of your life come together in harmony and create wholeness to your way of being will you truly be in flow with the universe.
Final note looking at the world today and modern society would you say it is more Yin or more Yang? If you said Yang you’d be right and if you said excess Yang you get special bonus points.
Civilisation is definitely in an extremely inflammable and hot state at the moment and you may think to yourself every now and then, ‘How can I make a cooling difference in the world?’
Well Gandhi himself once said:
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
And there’s a Yogi saying that goes:
“If you don’t go within, you go without.”
So if you want to make a cooling difference in the world and create more peace in a very noisy society then take some time out.
Meditate.
Work-in more.
Just stop.
Cultivate more energy for yourself for your family and loved ones and just be in the present moment with your surroundings and instead of worrying about what you don’t have express more appreciation for what you do have.
If everyone in the world, if we all made some time to be quiet and show gratitude then the whole entire world would change with us.
Links and Resources
- WGP 010: Nutritious Movement as Medicine
- How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy! — Paul Chek
- Whole Guidance Blog and Podcasts
- WGP 002: Being in an Attitude of Gratitude
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