As summer draws to a close and we enter into autumn, it’s a good opportunity to pay closer attention to our own health. In Traditional Oriental Medicine, the transitions between seasons are seen as an important period of time in which a person’s body is trying to re-calibrate and stay in harmony and balance with their natural environment.
With the relaxing days of summer drawing to a close, most of us probably find our lives busier than ever. Back to school. Back to work. Back to our everyday routines.
It can be easy to get caught up in the stress and busyness of life and forget about looking after our own health. However, in the 2,000 year old acupuncture textbook the Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine), the Emperor’s court doctor gave some simple and practical advice in maintaining a healthy lifestyle:
The theory of Yin – Yang is the most important concept in Traditional Oriental Medicine, as all of its more complex medical knowledge derives from this basic foundation.
In Part 1, it was seen how all natural phenomena can be classified into opposite pairs of Yin & Yang, and Part 2 described how these opposite pairs can influence each other in sickness or health.
In a previous article, we looked at the concept of Yin and Yang, and how Traditional Oriental Medicine classifies things in opposite pairings (as in the example of pain, is it at a fixed location or does it move around, does it improve with rest or with movement, is it better with heat or cold, etc.)
To add further to this concept is what can be described as the “see-saw” effect” – when one side of something increases, the opposite side tends to decrease in the opposite direction.
You’ve probably seen it before, and may have even wondered what it meant – the Yin Yang symbol, that strange looking circle with a couple of dots and squiggly lines
