A Time For Yin
“I want us to understand that nuance is freeing and freedom. There is no such thing as cookie-cutter healing. Everyone brings with them an origin story, a history, and identities that are interconnected. There is room to rest in the freedom of managing your own deprogramming journey. It is never either/or and always both/and. You don’t have to grind, hustle, accept burnout as normal, and be in a constant state of exhaustion and sleep deprivation. You don’t have to kill yourself spiritually or physically to live a fruitful life.”
-Tricia Hersey, “Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto”
Since beginning my studies with Chinese Medicine, I have found more alignment with the Chinese Calendar, celebrating New Year year when the bulk of Winter energy is passed and the promise of Spring is within reach. I’ve grown to dislike the Gregorian calendar and New Year - January 1st is not a time for dramatic change and resolutions. All of nature is telling us to slow down and to go inward. Reflect. Rest. Build Yin. We need to slow down after the hustle and bustle of the holidays and spend time hibernating. Clearing our space. Setting intentions. And sleeeeeeeping. All of these are Yin activities.
FOUNDATIONS
In TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), Yin is associated with substance, things that can be measured, with the night, the female, water, coolness, the moon, and most importantly, rest. In the tradition and teachings of all of Chinese Medicine, Yin and Yang must remain in balance in order to feel harmony. Yang, is the masculine. It is heat or fire, energy, light, the sun, day time, it is action-potential, it cannot, in any way, be measured. Balancing Yin and Yang is paramount to lead and live a happy, healthy life.
The Yin Yang theory in TCM is based on four principles:
OPPOSITION
We are always in between imbalance and balance. Up and down. Left and right. East and West. Neither is better than the other and neither is absolute. Yin is night. Yang is day. Yin is Water. Yang is Fire. The theory of opposites within Yin and Yang are infinite and aim to help us understand the balance of the world. It can be applied to every single thing. Where there is one, there is the opposite.
INTERDEPENDENCE
One cannot exist without the other. One part of us cannot be well unless a counterpart is also thriving. We cannot separate the body from illness or illness from a static list of conditions and symptoms. We HAVE to understand the big picture. Not separate, but whole. You are NOT your symptoms, but rather, your symptoms are signaling us to your imbalance.
MUTUAL CONSUMPTION
There are four states of imbalance: too much Yin; too much Yang; too little Yin; too little Yang. The two sides are in a constant state of dynamic balance. We either have an excess of something or a deficiency of something. Each will cause a different set of conditions over time. Are we constantly draining the excess? Are we tonifying the deficiency? Or are we always doing both?
INTERTRANSFORMATION
Yin is always becoming Yang and Yang is always becoming Yin. Change. There is a time factor associated with this principle. This is how the body decides how long it will take to find balance again. How practitioners decide the duration of treatment. How long it takes for one thing to turn to another. A common example are the season changes. Summer (Yang) turning to Winter (Yin) or a an egg undergoing fertilization (Yang) to become a stable embryo (Yin).
These theories can be applied to everyday life and describe a poetic way of looking at your health, your life, your family, and the world around you.
WE ARE IN A TIME OF YIN DEFICIENCY
When speaking about Mutual Consumption, we can safely surmise we are severely lacking the feminine (Yin).
Our planet is burning.
We are using too many resources and not replacing them.
Our planet and the people who live on it, are all operating in a state of deficiency. We are not well. It’s leading to symptoms of Yang Excess.
Too much masculine energy.
No rain, no water, no moisture…only fire and dryness.
No reservoir to draw from any longer.
The Interdependence of Yin and Yang is also in massive decline and we are leaning too heavily on the Yang side. In order to regain the balance, we need to add Yin to our planet. To ourselves. To our lives.
SIGNAL FIRES
The same principles are being applied to our planet. Fires are ravaging our forests, our open land, even our cities. We are using oil at a rapid rate with no long term plan on an alternative fuel source. We are experiencing devastating natural disasters at increasing rates. Beyond nature, we, as a society are overworked, overmedicated, underpaid, not being given time to rest, to think, to be. We are consuming and consuming without giving the Earth, or ourselves, time to replenish. No time to rest. No time to restore.
All of our organs are associated with a corresponding anima or “spirit” emotion that cannot be separated from its function.
Liver —> Wood Element —> Anger/Frustration
Heart —> Fire Element —> Manic Behavior
Spleen —> Earth Element —> Overthinking/Worrying
Lungs —> Metal Element —> Grief & Sadness
Kidneys —> Water Element —> Fear
This is a generating cycle of unchecked or imbalanced behavior that leads us to feel physical symptoms of discomfort. If you are angry all the time, plagued by past trauma with no real way to express it, dealing with chronic pain from stress, and not detoxing properly, you will end up with Liver Qi Stagnation. The pain is not from an injury, but rather, emotional damage to the energetics of your Liver (not your actual Liver, but the way energy moves in and out of your Liver. Liver with a capital “L” not a lowercase “l”).
Your Qi (chee), or life force, gets stuck in areas of your body where there is inherent or constitutional weakness. This stuck energy is what leads to physical or emotional symptoms.
We are sicker than ever. We are lacking in education. We need more support for our mental health and our physical well-being. Spending time with a doctor for 15 minutes is not enough. Insurance companies not covering therapy is not enough. Separating our minds from our bodies is not the answer. Breaking us apart from the whole is not the answer.
We must free the flow of Qi in order to be free from pain, both emotional and physical.
Every organ anima swings like a pendulum to its corresponding, balanced emotion. We all hold the capacity to experience the full range of human emotion which means, we can actively work to restore the balanced versions of our spirit.
Liver —> Wood Element —> Anger transforms to Determination, Planning/Organization, Ability to Visualize the Future
Heart —> Fire Element —> Manic Behavior transforms to Joy, Being So Happy You Could Cry, Elation
Spleen —> Earth Element —> Overthinking/Worrying transforms to Mental Acuity, Nurturing Qualities, and Empathy
Lungs —> Metal Element —> Grief and Sadness transform to Resolve, Inspiration, and Ease
Kidneys —> Water Element —> Fear transforms to Motivation, A Deeper Knowing of Self, Connection to Our Ancestors
YIN IS THE ANSWER
Beyond all of this - we need rest. Rest is resistance. Recharging and slowing down is the answer. Be the tortoise. Feel. Grieve. Learn to forgive. Embrace empathy. In rest, we find our creativity and we also find love. We slowly and quietly fight the immoralities of the world. We dismantle ideals that have kept us strung out, sick, and anxious. We must surrender to rest. We must redefine our moral compass. We must find and deeply nourish our Yin.
One of my favorite reads of 2024 was “Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto,” by Tricia Hersey. Reading her book with a TCM mind kept pointing my understanding of rest to the principle of Yin. I am going to outline some of my favorite passages from the book:
“The Rest Is Resistance framework does not believe in the toxic idea that we are resting to recharge and rejuvenate so we can be prepared to give more output to capitalism. What we have internalized as productivity has been informed by a capitalist, ableist, patriarchal system. Our drive and obsession to always be in a state of ‘productivity’ leads us to the path of exhaustion, guilt, and shame. We falsely believe we are not doing enough and that we must always be guiding our lives toward more labor. The distinction that must be repeated as many times as necessary is this: ‘We are not resting to be productive. We are resting simply because it is our divine right to do so.’”
“Treating each other and ourselves with care isn’t a luxury, but an absolute necessity if we’re going to thrive. Resting isn’t an afterthought, but a basic part of being human.”
“Productivity should not look like exhaustion. The concept of laziness is a tool of the oppressor. A large part of your unraveling from capitalism will include becoming less attached to the idea of productivity and more committed to the idea of rest as a portal to just be.”
“We are socialized into systems that cause us to conform and believe our worth is connected to how much we can produce. Our constant labor becomes a prison that allows us to be disembodied. We become easy for the systems to manipulate, disconnected from our power as divine beings and hopeless. We forget how to dream. This is how grind culture continues. We internalize the lies and in turn become agents of an unsustainable way of living.”
“We must believe we are worthy of rest. We don’t have to earn it. It is our birthright. It is one of our most ancient and primal needs.”
Shed our old ideals to make way for stronger, lasting ones. The snake symbolizes wisdom, intuition, and transformation. It commands respect for its sharp intelligence and remarkable adaptability. It’s often associated with subtle success and quiet prosperity. We all hold the ability to change. Just as our bodies are constantly striving towards healing, our minds can also open to new possibilities and understanding.
While the snake may appear more Yang in nature, slithering, sloughing, and succeeding, it is actually Yin in nature. Calm introspection. Stored stealth potential. Reevaluation. Quiet contemplation. There is so much to discover in silence and rest. I hope you’ll join me in deeply nourishing our collective Yin this year.