What is yin and yang? What is Chinese medicine? When is the best time for me to do acupuncture (with therapy or after therapy)? I’ve had my pain for some time now. Is it THAT bad to not address it now?
The expression “it takes two to tango” is a simple way to demonstrate the importance of the yin and yang and the five elements of Chinese medicine. When applied to our body, the idiom “it takes two to tango” suggests there are forces within our body that are paired in an inextricably-related and active manner. The idiom can be used to talk about how most dance requires two people to make a performance look polished (and sometimes effortless). The more steps with a dance performance the more it requires the dance duo to work together to gain an understanding past memorizing the dance sequence.
What is yin and yang? What is Chinese medicine? In traditional Chinese medicine, the delicate balance of our body systems is described in the five element theory, widely used in Chinese medicine, astrology, and numerology. Ancient Chinese believe that the five elements of fire, earth, metal, water, and wood is the basis of the universe. The ebb and flow between these elements explains what living things go through at any given moment. Fire generates earth, earth generates metal, metal generates water, water generates wood, wood generates fire. The cycle continues on and on and creates a harmony and balance in our body. When applied to a larger scale explains the balance of our earth. Each dance step is followed by another purposeful step. All the steps together orchestrate a performance that can put the crowd on its feet. This is the perfect balance any dance duo can strive for.
Within each element/organ, there is also a dance between yin and yang, the complementary yet opposing energies within each organ. Yin and yang are interdependent. One cannot exist without the other and thus their balance is essential for good health.
Yin-Yang Pairs in Your Body
Yang – Yin
Exterior – Interior
Back – Front
Head – Body
Above the Waist – Below the Waist
Function – Structure
Qi (energy) – Blood and bodily fluids
This delicate dance and balance between our five elements and the body systems that represents them is the key to building a super human. When there is a deficiency in one area it creates a flare up in another area causing small warning signs in our body, symptoms that are often ignored or misunderstood. For example, a kidney yin deficiency impacts liver yang to flare up. This imbalance leads to dizziness. Western and Eastern medicine has many theories for having dizziness. The longer you delay care for imbalances, the more exaggerated the yin-yang deficiencies become. Left untreated, the seemingly harmless symptom of feeling dizzy can grow in complexity and become a chronic problem.
At this point I might have loss a lot of you, let’s explain it in a different way using the circle chart (shown above). If water generates wood, then let’s call water the father of wood. Wood generates fire, so wood is the father of fire. Father creates the element. If you take it another step back, water is considered the grandfather of fire. Grandfather is used to dampen an element. We will not go into great-grandfather because that will make things too complicated. Let’s keep it three generations for now.
I live in southern California, and we are known for our surfing, sunshine, and beaches. We are also known with our brush fires. I would like to use fire as an example. When the fire is burning, we have one option to stop and one option to dampen the fire. A solution to dampen the fire is to dump water on the fire. Remember, water is the grandfather of fire. We do not dump more wood in the area. Wood is what generates the fire. When the grandson is out of control, sometimes the solution is to use the grandfather to help get the grandson in order. Now back to your body. If your fire element (heart) is on fire, your treatment in theory would to create more water (kidney) to help calm your heart down. On the other hand, if your fire element (heart) is about to be burned off, you create more wood element (liver) to help keep the fire going. Is that clear as mud? If yes, this explains why symptoms should be taken care of when it first starts. The longer the symptoms are left untreated, the more complicated the treatment and diagnosis.
The answer is it depends. You can decide yourself. Sometimes we do different treatments to help create the same result. Let’s say your fire is burning too much. We can drain the wood in hopes that the wood doesn’t continue to fuel the fire. If your fire is about to burn off, we can also drain the water so the water does not put out the fire. As you can understand, the more variables involved the more difficult it is to control the elements. Time is a variable that does not need to be in this medical picture. If you have symptoms, do not drag out the time you have pain, constipation, headache, dizziness, menstruation or sleeping issues, to name a few common symptoms that eastern and western medicine can help easily.
Going back to the answer of “it depends”, are you the type that have patience and willing to go the extra mile? Patience is important because of the time factor. The change in a chronic condition is small at first. Sometimes the change is small where it is easily overlooked because the frustration has been built up so long where one is focused on trying to achieve the home run effect. Instant gratification. A chronic condition tends to be tedious because it requires a lot of mindfulness in daily habits. A diet tweak, here. A change in sitting posture, there. This is the extra mile that can overwhelm someone from the get go. “It takes two to tango” when learning a simple or complex dance sequence. The patient and practitioner needs to work together. The more steps in the dance routine, the more patience you need to go the extra mile for faster results.
When is the best time for me to do acupuncture (with therapy or after therapy)? Like a dance routine with complex steps and complementary, and at times, opposing partners, our human body and the systems that function within our body is incredibly complex. Yes, our the human body is resilient and can handle lots of stress before it stops, but imagine how difficult it is to untangle and figure out a dance that has thousands of dance steps! Sometimes it is okay to get acupuncture alone, sometimes acupuncture before physical therapy or acupuncture after therapy. A good example is when you have a bad dance performance, do you relearn everything because you picked up a lot of bad habits or tweak your sequence here or there? Leaving small symptoms and irritations untreated can lead to a more complex problem. Do your body a favor and get a free consultation. Email us at revitalizerehab@gmail.com with your symptoms, small or big. Most of the time, simple conditions are easily managed with simple advice. Keep it simple everyone. ONE LOVE!