Yin And Yang

It is believed that over 20,000 years ago there was, amongst all people on the earth, a universal understanding of cosmology and philosophy and its influence on the every day lives of human activity.

That is to say, people believed that within the natural world, energy or energies existed that determined and influenced all aspects of our lives. By understanding how these energies worked or moved people could improve or make changes to their destiny.

Between 10,000-20,000 years ago different versions or interpretations of this cosmology were still in existence. The closest records of the original philosophies have been found in the Far East in Japan and China.
2,500-3,000 years BC or 4,500-5,000 years ago a book was written called the 'I-ching' or 'book of changes'. It is one of the oldest books in the world. The basis of the book were 2 energies yin (--) and yang (_) and 8 trigrams or stages of change in the universe (and 'the magic square').

Legend has it that these came from an emperor in ancient China named Fu Hsi. An emperor called Shin No also talked about yin and yang with reference to agriculture. Another known as Ko Tei or 'The Yellow Emperor' applied the energies of yin and yang to food and the effects of food.
There was a new understanding of meridians and the flow of energy or 'chi' (Ch.) or 'ki' (Jap.) which led to techniques in Oriental medicine such as massage and acupuncture.

In order to understand these energies it was believed that you needed to observe the patterns of movement and change that govern all things on the earth. All ancient philosophers and thinkers would have observed nature. All things or matter go through a continual change-(everything is constantly changing).
This change involves stages of contraction and expansion -Yin and Yang. (There are, in fact, 5 important stages-this will be looked at in another article).

'Ki' or 'chi', the life force is the result of this constant interaction of yin and yang.
Yin= upward, rising, expanding and cooling (centrifugal)
Yang= downward, contracting and warming (centripetal)
These 2 energies are polar and opposite in nature, providing the basis through which all things or matter are created, dissolved and destroyed.
If you are new to this way of looking at things then think about two vegetables:a carrot and a lettuce.

If you plant carrot seeds in your garden, a few months later you have a root vegetable which is growing downwards- you can observe the rings around it or spirallic effect on the outside of it. So when we use or eat the carrot we know it has more yang energy than a lettuce.
(There are also green tops on top that grow upwards that have more yin energy.) When you plant the seed of a lettuce, the result a few months later is the opposite, a vegetable that grows upwards, above the soil and expanding outwards. This is an example of yin energy.

We can look at vegetables and all things that grow in the light of yin and yang energies. Everything that grows and moves on this planet is in relative terms to each other -yin or yang. Whilst everything is a combination of the two energies, some things are more yin than others, whilst some are more yang than others.

The seasons, times of day, can all be relatively yin or yang. For example, in spring (in temperate climates) plants start to come out and bloom- rising, expanding energy (yin energy). Then in the autumn, the leaves fall and there is a contracting and downward element (yang energy).

At sunrise or dawn the movement of the sun is upwards and expanding -more yin, and at sunset the movement of the sun is downwards and contracting- more yang. The basis for this is that everything is moving on our planet, nothing stands still. Right at this moment, as you read this the earth is revolving anti-clockwise on its axis, the moon is orbiting the earth -this combination provides effects such as tides and causes things to grow or change.

In fact by the time you get to the end of this paragraph considerable changes will have taken place on the earth in that short time.
If you're sitting at a desk or in a chair even the particles that make up the wood, metal or plastic are (if we could see through a very powerful microscope) vibrating. They are subject to change due to interaction with other elements in the atmosphere -air, water, wind, collision etc.

In other words, we ourselves and everything else around us is changing.The interaction of the different elements that produce corrosion, deterioration, damage is an example of the interaction of these two energies yin and yang.
Why do we need to know this? By analysing how and where a plant grows and the way an animal moves and lives, we can choose our food according to yin and yang. The way we cook our food can also increase or decrease the yin and yang aspect. Some cooking methods involve more heat than others, some create contraction or expansion, some involve more time or less time, more salt or no salt and so on. By choosing the appropriate foods and cooking styles according to yin and yang we can bring balance to our bodies.

For example, in the heat of the tropics having 'steak and chips' (fries) might cause us to overheat and get sick, but if we choose to have more colder things like salad in 45 Celsius, we can bring our body temperature down and achieve balance. Likewise having cold ice cream (yin) and cold drinks (yin) in the Arctic could cause problems as the temperature outside is below freezing (yin) and we need to raise the body temperature (make ourselves more yang), in order to stay alive -achieve balance.

Most of us, in our daily lives, are trying to achieve this balance between yin and yang already without being aware of it. For example, the opposites "hot" and "cold". When it is -10 C outside we naturally put on warm clothes, you wouldn't wear shorts and a T-shirt would you?
Equally when it is 45 C outside we don't put on snowboots, thick socks and many layers of clothing as we would overheat. So we are quite often responding to these natural energies but we don't today see it in terms of yin and yang. If we understand how to choose the right foods and right cooking styles for our climate, season and personal condition then we can bring about health from sickness.

Just using the examples of "hot" and "cold" only describes one characteristic of yin and yang. There are other characteristics such as "expansion" and "contraction", "upward" and "downward", in fact, there are more than I have the space for here.
If you loved this post and you would certainly such as to obtain even more information concerning invitatii model kindly go to our internet site. All types of sickness can be categorised as a more 'yin' type of sickness or a more 'yang' type of sickness or both yin and yang. When we know which one it is we can adapt our food and cooking styles accordingly and along with other lifestyle adjustments. To show you an example of this -diabetes is usually a more yin type of illness.

It has usually come about as a result of too many 'yin' type of foods-sugar, alcohol, spices and stimulants. Knowing this we can choose to remove sugar, alcohol and other extreme yin foods from the diet and put in some more downward and contracting foods -such as millet (yang) and aduki beans (yang) amongst other things.
This sickness can be turned around through our understanding of yin and yang to achieve balance and health. The idea behind yin and yang is to create balance between the two energies in our daily lives. We all need a bit of both, but not too much in either extreme, otherwise we'll get sick.

Extreme Yang: Salt, Eggs, Chicken, Poultry, Red meat, Cheese, Red fish Extreme Yin: Radiation, Chemicals, Drugs, Alcohol, Sugar, Spices, Coffee, Tea, Milk, Dairy products, White rice, White flour
Some Yang: White fish, Buckwheat, Millet, Brown rice, Lentils, Beans, Root vegetables Some Yin: Oils, Temperate fruit, Leafy vegetables, Nuts, Seeds (Round vegetables-yin and yang)

Food items in 'some yang' and some 'yin categories' can be for regular use in a temperate climate. Avoid 'extreme yin' and 'extreme yang' in general (can be dipped into occasionally depending on health).
In 2003, (10 years ago at the time of writing this) Michio Kushi wrote in 'The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health', -"The laws of Yin and Yang govern all phenomena, from the movements of sub-atomic particles to the compositions of blood and tissue, from the formation of the planets and moons to the relationship between the sexes. By knowing how to balance these forces in our own lives, we can turn sickness into health, conflict into peace and sadness into joy."