How To Apply Yin and Yang To Everyday Health
- jerroldcheam
- Jul 31
- 6 min read
I am fairly sure most people would recognise the idea of Yin and Yang - the term and the symbol at least, if not the underlying philosophy. But Yin and Yang is really about the underlying relationships of the universe, and more importantly how they apply to us, making it a useful foundation to help us understand our own health.
No doubt you’ll have seen or heard Yin and Yang discussed as opposite forces, which is kind of true on a superficial level, but really it’s about how those forces operate together to bring about balance.
The key thing to remember is, it’s not a balance of absolutes. So we shouldn’t think of something as totally Yin or Yang in insolation. Instead Yin and Yang is really all about change. It’s about how dynamic states interact, and not how things exist independently - you can’t have Yin without Yang and vice versa.
Yin and Yang exist in a cycle of change - they change into, consume and control one another. This is the same cycle we can see in the world around us. The cycle of birth, life and death; of night turning into day; the change of the season, from Spring through to Winter and back again.
So what does that mean for our health? Well, in Chinese Medicine (or more broadly across all Traditional East Asian Medicine), the foundation for health is grounded in balance, and we can use Yin and Yang as a framework to figure out where we are and how we want to change.
Common examples of Yin and Yang are typically night and day; cold and hot; passive and active; winter and summer, old and young…potentially there are infinitely more combinations, but these are a good starting point from a health context.
Let’s look at how we might use these in an everyday health context… The first step is being aware of the balance, and understanding where you sit on that scale.
Night and Day
Night is a Yin time, day is a Yang time, so we should be keeping to those rhythms in terms of rest and sleep - after all, that shouldn’t be a surprise as that’s how our bodies are wired. But the key thing here is recognising whether there is sufficient balance between the two.
Are you getting enough sleep and rest at the right time? Are you active enough during the day? The reverse is true too. Are you too active at night? Are you not moving enough in the daytime?
The energy around night and day is different, and you should be trying to match that energy at the appropriate time.
Rest and Activity
Tied closely to the night & day / Yin and Yang cycle is active and passive activity more generally.
It’s quite easy to live too actively or too passively. For example working long hours at a desk means we need to balance that Yin activity out with more Yang. Or if you are on the go for long hours in a day, you need time to recharge and calm the mind and the body.
Overall, the question you need to ask yourself is are you engaging too much Yang? Or are you engaging too much Yin?
The key is getting the balance right.
If you’re overly active/Yang, and burning too much energy or getting over-stimulated, balance it out with some Yin activity. Vice versa, if you’re being too quiet and still, get things moving a bit more…
Yin Activities vs Yang Activities
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Cold and Hot
Another key aspect of Yin and Yang when it comes to health is ensuring balance between Cold and Heat.
That’s not only the temperature we feel, but the energetics of the body as well. For example, heat might be a fever, or it might more energetic Heat that can lead to irritability or insomnia. Cold might be physically feeling cold, but can energetic Cold also be a contributing factor in pain or digestive issues.
So the balance is between external and internal influences on our health. How we dress and meet our environment and what we eat and drink both play a significant role in managing Cold and Heat in our health.
We need to ensure we dress appropriately for the environment that we live in. We’re normally doing that naturally, but have a think as to whether you’re covered up appropriately when it’s cold, damp or windy, and when it’s hot making sure your body has the chance to breathe and not trap warmth that would make you overheat. One other thing to think about is extremes - particularly so when moving from the heat outside into a very chilled room!
Second, the food we eat has a big impact on our body’s internal energy. Eating too much spicy food for example heats the body too much. Drinking too many cold drinks and eating too much raw or cold foods cools the body too much. Most food and drink will fall somewhere on a temperature scale. Ideally, we want to have more neutral energy foods, and limit things on either end of the spectrum…think ice cold drinks vs a super-spicy curry!
Winter and Summer
If we’re living appropriately with the seasons then in the depths of Yin in winter for example, we want to ensure we’re balancing that with Yang, doing things to ensure the we generate enough Yang energy to balance out the cold, like diet - so eating plenty of ice cream is probably a bad idea, instead think nice warming soups and stew. Same for the summertime - too much warming stuff will make you overheat more easily, so opt for lighter, more cooling foods (but without going overboard and adding too much Cold).
If we’re conscious of the cycle of change as well, then we would want to make sure we take the time to build reserves and Yin in the run up to Springtime so that we have enough to fuel the growth of Yang, and then in Autumn, making sure we take the time to start slowing down to meet the quiet phase of Winter.
Old and Young
Chinese Medicine views our life cycle in terms of Yin and Yang as well. Youth is more Yang, and as we age we become more Yin.
So we need to ensure we’re balancing the energies at the correct phase in life. More Yang as we age, ensuring sufficient Yin in our youth.
For example, in general if you’re young and energetic at a more Yang point in your life, you may like to party hard and burn the candle at both ends. If so, then you’re definitely going to need to be aware of the necessary balance - this needs to be supported with more Yin activities, making sure you get adequate rest and sleep and time to recover. Conversely, if you’re at an age where you spend more time sedentary and things are slowing down and becoming more Yin, you’ll need to be aware of balancing this out with more Yang energy through movement, exercise, eating the right foods or even thinking about supplementing Yang through things like herbs.
Awareness of Yin and Yang
Yin and Yang without a doubt form the foundation for a more clinical approach, especially when considering elements of Hot and Cold, and Excess and Deficiency and how they apply to the body. These might be long term chronic factors, or something more acute, but at any given point there’s something you can do to regain balance.
But for now just being aware of Yin and Yang in daily life is a great first step, as it now predisposes you to think about balance, and over time you can expand your knowledge and experience to living more closely in harmony with your body and your environment.
I’ll leave you with one more thought - when we talk about Yin and Yang, it’s important to remember that it’s all about you. Your experience of Yin and Yang is relative to you, so you shouldn’t necessarily be trying to imitate other people without being aware of what’s relevant for you. By that I mean to say if you want to engage in a more Yang way, then planning to do an ultra-marathon straight from sitting in front of the TV is probably not a great idea - start small and work your way up!
Hopefully that will give you a basis to start thinking about how Yin and Yang can have an impact on your life. Lifestyle and dietary recommendations are part and parcel of acupuncture treatments, so if you’re interested in finding out more, get in touch!
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