Yang for Our Yin

I’m sure you’ve heard of yin and yang - the Chinese concept that everything is part of a cosmic duality of opposite yet complementing qualities, and essentially is always in search of being balanced. It’s something I talk about a lot in my clinic and I'm still fascinated how simple yet complex this theory is and how everything fits into this little black and white symbol. 

It can be seen and understood in countless forms, but as a sun lover / chaser I use this as one of my favourite ways to explain a big part of yin and yang in relation to our body.

The sun is considered yang.  Yang is life force, heat, metabolism, it encourages movement.  Yang is the ‘functional’.  Yin is the opposite. It’s the ‘material’.  My teacher passed on this gem (it may sound a bit morbid but it’s a fascinating analogy)

"if you have two bodies next to each other, and one was dead and the other alive - then they would both still have yin, although only one would have yang" 

Yang is the force - the function (responsible for all the physical processes in the body), it's the yang that moves the yin. Yin is the actual body itself (the tissues - bones, muscles, blood etc).   Yin is the material that holds and anchors the yang, so it can be contained and utilised.  Like the electrical impulses (yang) which allow you to move your fingers (yin) when you want to pick something up for example.

The sun feels so good because it is yang in nature - it gives life and life is dependant on it.  If we look closer at living in colder climates you’ll notice we move slower.  We retreat more, and go inwards.  In warmer climates and when we are closer to the sun, we move outwards. We are louder and more active.  Yang is also related to the male aspect while yin is the female.  Females are therefore colder in nature and more prone to feeling the cold, whereas men pertain to yang and commonly will feel naturally warmer. 

So, are you a sun chaser like me? Or do you prefer the cold?

Miriam x