In this video, I introduce the fundamental concept of Yin and Yang in traditional Chinese medicine and explain how this theory helps us understand balance in both our bodies and minds. I talk about how everything in life—from nature to our own health—relies on the interplay between Yin (cool, nourishing, restorative) and Yang (warm, active, energizing). When these forces are in harmony, we experience vitality, but imbalances can lead to a range of health issues like insomnia, irritability, fatigue, or sluggishness. I offer practical examples of what excess or deficiency of Yin or Yang might look like in everyday life, and suggest simple adjustments in diet, lifestyle, and environment to help restore balance. My goal is to make this ancient wisdom accessible and actionable for anyone wanting to improve their well-being.
Topics Covered in this Video
- Introduction to the Yin and Yang theory in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
- How Yin and Yang imbalances manifest in the body and mind
- Examples of Yang and Yin excess, deficiency, and their symptoms
- Dietary and lifestyle recommendations for restoring Yin-Yang balance
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Unedited Video Transcript
Have you ever felt completely drained one day, but full of energy the next? Or maybe you’re wondering why some people tend to thrive in the morning while other people are often more alive at night. Well, the answer to these questions lies in one of the most fundamental theories in traditional Chinese medicine, the theory of Yin and Yang. In this video, we’re diving into Yin Yang theory, what it is, how it explains balance in your body and mind, and why understanding it can transform your health. Let’s dive in. Hi, I’m Vanessa from Blue Frog Wellness. Welcome to my channel where I share insights from traditional Chinese medicine, or tcm, to help you better understand your health and well being. I want to be clear that this channel is for information and educational purposes only. Although Chinese medicine has been practiced for thousands of years, it is not a substitute for professional medical advice.
If you happen to have a health concern, please don’t hesitate to address that with a professional licensed healthcare practitioner. You’ve probably seen the famous black and white Yin and Yang symbol, but you might be wondering what exactly does that mean for your health? Well, in traditional Chinese medicine, balance is everything. So when we have balance, we have harmony. And harmony means vitality and restorative health. And when we don’t have balance within Yin and Yang, we’re going to see disease, discomfort and illness. Yin and Yang describe the dual forces that exist in everything. So movement and stillness, hot and cold, light and dark, expansion and contraction. And not only are these two forces opposite one another, they are also connected in a way that Yin and Yang are continuously flowing, continuously shifting to maintain that balance.
So some examples of Yin and Yang. In nature, Yang energy is going to be the warming energy. So think of the sun. Heat, activity, movement, energy and daytime are all Yang qualities of energy. Yin, on the other hand, will be the opposite. So this will be your cooling energy. This is the moon and coolness. Rest, stillness, nourishment and nighttime.
In your body, the same balance exists. Yang in the body is going to equate to things that are going to be warming and active. So energy, metabolism, circulation and warmth. Yin in the body will be the opposite. It will be things that are cooling and more stillness and more restorative. So blood is a Yin, fluids are Yin, nourishment is Yin, and coolness, of course, is Yin. When these two forces are in harmony, we feel healthy, vibrant and resilient. But life isn’t always in perfect balance, right? We have stressful lives, we are overworked.
Maybe we have a poor diet and lack sleep. All of these things will throw Yin and Yang out of sync, which will lead to health problems. We can break down the yin and Yang balances even further when we have too much Yang. We call this Yang excess. It’s like a fire that’s burning out of control. So we’ll have symptoms of overheating, irritability, red face, headaches, high blood pressure, and insomnia. An example is somebody who’s working long hours, drinking a lot of coffee, maybe engaging in different stimulants, and they get easily frustrated. Right? This is the person that.
You can see their temperature rising on their face by how red they are getting as they get more irritated and frustrated in just simple conversation. We also can have too much yin, which we would call a Yin excess. So like a damp, cold basement with no airflow. Right. Our symptoms here might be feeling sluggish, bloated, cold hands and feet, weight gain and congestion. You’ll feel a sense of heaviness because of the excess yin or the excess moisture, the cooling nature in your system. And an example of this is someone who eats a lot of cold and raw foods. So people who eat a strictly raw diet will succumb to this more often, especially if they don’t move much.
They will feel cold and bloated and have poor digestion and brain fog because they have too much yin. Now, equally, we can have not enough yin. We can have a Yin deficiency. And this is like running a car without enough engine coolant, right? Or not enough oil in your engine to keep things lubricated and cool and moving smoothly. So this symptoms here would be hot flashes and night sweats, really dry aspects. So dry skin, dry eyes, dry nails, always a dry mouth, restlessness, and also insomnia. This could be a person who’s in menopause or someone who just burns out from overwork. Really long hours, not enough time to rest, not enough water in their day, not enough cooling, restorative energy, and they just run hot by nature.
So this will attribute to hot flashes and night sweats and just a feeling of hot getting again, red in the face, but for a different reason, because there’s not enough Yin to keep that Yang contained. And then if there’s not enough Yang, you’ll have a Yang deficiency. This is like a fire that’s burned out and just turned to ash, so it’s just barely smoldering. And symptoms here will be a cold body, fatigue, low metabolism, weak digestion, and depression. And an example of that is someone who’s always tired, needs a blanket, likes to curl up, and craves warm Drinks, doesn’t like to get cold, just wants to be anything around warmth and, you know, being in the sun, getting that warm energy back to their body. You can think of that as someone who’s very hypothyroid, right? They are fatigued, very lethargic, not necessarily going to be getting restorative sleep, and their digestion might be really terrible. They might have a lot of bloating and gas. So the key to health, then is really to bring the yin and Yang back into balance.
And depending on what’s going on and what you might be having as an imbalance, here’s how you can do it. So if you’ve got too much yang, you’re running too hot. Obviously, we want to cool you down. So things like cucumber and watermelon, coconut water and peppermint tea would be amazing, Even orange juice to cool you down. But we also want to avoid that things are going to spice things up and add heat to your system. So we. We want to avoid hot sauce and pepper and things that are going to be more spicy and pungent. Definitely you want to lay off hard alcohol because for the same reason, it’s hotter in nature.
And you want to avoid hot yoga or being in saunas or hot environments because that heat is only making your condition worse. In fact, we want more yin yoga, restorative yoga, cooling, quenching, and dark spaces of stillness will really help to cool that yang that’s in excess for you. Too much yin. Well, we want to warm things up and balance that out. So we want to avoid adding any extra yin to your diet. So stay away from dairy, stay away from raw vegetables because they’re too cooling on the system. And you want to actually incorporate more cooked vegetables. So soups, stews, porridges, oatmeals, things that are warm in nature.
And then, of course, warming spices will help. So ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, anything that you can think of as a chai spice or a warming herb spice will be very helpful for you here. Not enough yin. So we’re running hot again by default. Well, we want to nourish that as well. So we want to eat, again, more cooling foods. So things that can really bring moisture to your body. So, so here we do want to see a little bit of dairy, but we also want to see goji berries and black sesame and things that are going to be really restorative, specifically to the kidneys, but especially to the yin element.
So coconut water, again, things that are very quenching. So water with a little bit of lemon in it and just trying to maintain your hydration levels in general are really going to help here. And if you’ve got not enough Yang again, you’re Yang deficient. Well, not only do we want to add those warming spices and warming foods and eating thermally cooked food, but we also want to get active. So get out into the sun, get your body moving. This is where you could use a sauna because that will help to warm up your internal core and get your circulation moving and really re establish that Yang. So do you recognize any of these imbalances in yourself? Let me know in the comments below. I’d be curious to see if you can recognize that perhaps you’re running a little bit hotter than usual, maybe getting a little bit more irritable than you normally are, or perhaps you’re feeling a little bit cooler and more lethargic than normal.
Well, now you know what you have to do to reverse that pattern and restore your balance. If you found this video helpful, please give it a like and subscribe to the channel. Next time we are going to discuss another foundational theory in traditional Chinese medicine, and that is the theory of the five elements. And you’ll better understand how we see the body and how we see our organs and emotions working together in a synchronicity. And when they’re out of balance, how do we know that that’s out of balance and how can we restore that? For your own health and wellness, thanks so much. We’ll see you.
