The Chinese symbol for yin and yang has been around for many centuries and is widely recognized throughout the world. The meaning behind “yin” and “yang” however and what the symbol depicts are not as clearly understood. Since our medicine is in large part based on the principles of yin and yang, here’s a bit more information for you:
The white portion of the symbol represents Yang energy. Yang is traditionally associated with light, sun, male energy, activity/productivity, heat, and moving forward and out in the world. Yin is traditionally associated with dark, moon, female energy, rest and hibernating, cool/cold and receptivity/inward focus and passive energy.
Since we’re focusing on motherhood this month, think of the “yin” as being the 9 months of pregnancy — carrying the baby and having it grow inside of the womb, in darkness; and the “yang” is the act of labor and delivery — the dramatic and energetic pushing of the baby out into the world, into the light. You need both the yin and yang phases to give birth to a healthy baby. The same principle can be applied to any life process and any healing journey.
No matter your gender, you have yin and yang energies in your body. When we talk about “balance” in Chinese medicine, these are the energies we are working with. If you have too much heat or yang rising up to your head, that may be the cause of a migraine, for instance. We need to cool the heat (calm the excess yang) and bring it back down. At the same time, we don’t want to put out the fire all together — we need that yang energy; it just needs to be in check and not flaring up and out of control. An over-abundance of yin energy on the other hand would present as cool or cold in the body — we need to warm the channel and organ associated with the root issue.
The needles can serve to nourish the deficiency and calm the excess energy. This is a very simplified version of how we are able to help your body to come back into balance — and this is what drives up the cellular function and heals at the root level.
In the visual symbol of the Yin and Yang, you notice that the white and black are separate but connected in a circle; the white part always has a black dot in it and likewise, the black portion always has a white dot. This illustrates how the opposites need each other to be fully functioning and whole — and how even the yang has a little bit of yin and the yin has a little bit of yang. The two energies are interdependent.