So you want to give up sugar?

I know many of you may have tried this before and have found out how much will power it takes to overcome sugar cravings when they arise.  It is very difficult to remove your sugar cravings and get sugar out of your life.  Knowing how to balance your yin and yang can help.  Remember that sugar is an extreme yin substance.  Sugar cravings then are an indication that the body is out of balance on the yang side.  This means that the person is in excess yang.  So in order to end the yin cravings and come into balance we have to reduce the yang side.  The yang side is salt, sodium, meat, sunlight, fish, cheese, eggs, and dry foods, baked foods, fried foods, etc.  In order to reduce the yang side, we have to reduce the yin intake.  This sounds like a teeter totter of reductions, a little on the yang side and a little on the yin side.

The real solution is to correct towards the middle.  Filling in the middle means adding more whole grains, vegetables, soups, and sea vegetables to your diet.  Avoid yang cooking styles and hidden yin like caffeine and other chemicals.

When I first started to balance, my sugar cravings persisted for two years until they finally stopped.  During that time they were greatly reduced however, so I was back in control of my life.

Giving up sugar without balancing the system is like trying to stop a tsunami by standing on the beach with your arms outstretched and saying, "No!  No!  No!"  It ain't going to happen.

Thanks for reading.

Something we should all hear

Man has been in an excess yang state for a long time, maybe hundreds of years.  It is time for some balance.  Remember all correction needs to be made to the center.  Live and eat in the center of the spectrum for your geographical area.

Realize balance now.

Thanks for reading.

A list of known satisfiers

Today I would like to look at the way cravings work in a little more depth.  When yin and yang get out of balance, the aspect that is in excess creates a need for the other aspect to bring it into balance.  In other words, if you are too yang, your body will crave yin.  If your body is too yin, you will crave yang.  Remember the body can be excess yin and yang at the same time.

Most food vendors know this intuitively.  It is the reason that bars give away free popcorn because they know that the salt will make you crave their alcoholic beverages.  If you look at the grocery store and observe how much shelf space is devoted to foods in the middle of the yin and yang spectrum as opposed to the shelf space devoted to foods that are at the extreme ends of the spectrum you will begin to see the enormity of the problem.

Food advertising works on these imbalances.  Food advertisers know that you have developed a list of known satisfiers that have satisfied your cravings in the past.  When you are craving yang and a big mac or a pizza appears on your tv screen you scan your list of known satisfiers to see if what you are watching is on your list.  If it is, you are very likely to make an appointment with yourself to meet up with that particular food in the near future.

How do foods get on our list of know satisfiers?  Food advertising often motivates us to try a food that we have not tried before to see if it qualifies for our list.  Peers often pressure us into trying foods or other substances and then if the craving is present, our list is often updated.  This is how drug dealers work.  They give you a free sample so that your list of known satisfiers gets updated.  Once there, if the opportunity presents itself we are ready to use that food again to satisfy our craving.  Eating in a balanced way removes these cravings and allows us to take control of our lives.

Thanks for reading.

Be straight with yourself

The other day I overheard a conversation about diet and weight loss.  I was at a senior citizens center which I frequent to play table tennis.  A man, who is about 70 years of age, was talking about diet and weight.  He was saying that he had recently lost some weight to get down to about 180 lbs but then he had gained it all back and now weighed 206 lbs.  He was complaining about back pain and how it prevented him from exercising.  Then he said "I just love to eat and I can't find any food that I don't like."

This is an example of a person who is driven by his cravings.  This is an out of balance condition that is ruling this person's life.  He is not in control of his life, his cravings are in control.

My guru once said, "If you can't be straight with the world, at least be straight with yourself."  Sometimes we go through life and we rationalize our behavior by lying to ourselves.  Part of this is due to the ignorance of the yin and yang system which creates these cravings.  Perhaps if we knew the mechanism that was working on us we would be more able to be truthful about a possible solution.  This is why it is so important to understand the dynamics of the creation around us and to utilize the tools of balance that we have been given.

We can take this situation and improve on it by moving our diet towards the middle of the yin and yang spectrum.  That means adding more whole grains and whole grain products, more vegetables, more bean products, more sea vegetables, and more fruit.

Thanks for reading.

Flu shots

I attended a senior citizen health care fair at my local center this morning and they were providing flu shots, of course.  Now before I changed my diet and lifestyle, I used to get the flu just like many other people.  That was before flu shots were available.  Since 1987 or so, I have not had the flu or anything remotely like the flu.  Why is that?

The reason is that I discovered what flu actually is.  Flu is an attempt by the body to discharge large amounts of excess that have built up over the summer season.  Flu may be triggered by various factors but the actual cause of the episode is the excess that the body needs to get rid of to balance itself.  Now the rule is, "No excess, no discharge."   So, after I changed my diet and started to balance my system, I went through a period of discharge but I came to a point where I had very little excess of any kind within my body system.  At that point I became basically immune to the flu and I have not had it since.

This system works so well that it is easy to get overconfident so beware.  I caution you not to become arrogant about your health because defects to your application of a good system can cause you problems.  Use a lot of common sense and get regular check ups with your doctor.

Get balanced, and you won't need that flu shot.

Thanks for reading.

Transition

In the temperate zone, the time of transition from summer to winter has begun.  Even as the weather becomes cooler, the contraction of summer continues.  The trees become drier and colors become more yang, reds, yellows, and oranges.  Other plants contract as well.  Annuals reach the end of their cycle and some put out seed.

It is time to start transitioning your diet as well.  More cooked foods become appropriate and more yang cooking styles such as longer cooking, stewing, roasting, etc.  Less fruit and more root and ground vegetables are the foods of fall and winter.  These are naturally the foods that preserve well in cool places as well as those foods that pickle well.  Make your own sauerkraut and pickles to last through the winter.  Squash and pumpkin store the sunshine and make it available through the winter.  Hard greens, in some places, will winter over or almost winter over so keep harvesting them and enjoy them as long as possible.

Now is the time to begin to turn inward so close your eyes and sit.  Meditation can make a gloomy day joyful.  Find the marvel of your true self.

Thanks for reading.

Going to the mountains?

Once when I was talking to a health counselor, I mentioned that I was going to take a trip to the Himalayas.  He cautioned me that that environment, being extreme yin, would not be good for my illness which was caused by extreme yang.  I was confused by his statement so I asked him to explain.  It was my opinion that the yin environment would help my condition become more yin and therefore help my illness.  He said that the extreme yin environment would make my body react and actually become more yang.  He said that I needed to go to a more yang climate which would make my body react and become more yin.

First, let's talk about the mountains and why the environment there is more yin.  Increasing altitude in the temperate zones and tropical zone actually results in a much stronger yin force.  Why is that?  Yin is created by the spinning of the earth.  The farther you go away from the center of the spinning, the stronger the centrifugal force generated.  At the surface of the earth the spinning is actually moving from west to east at about 1000 miles per hour.  At 20,000 feet elevation you are moving in a much larger circle then at sea level so you are actually moving much faster then 1000 miles per hour.  I'm sure there is a mathematical formula to compute the speed difference but I don't know it.  Perhaps one of you might know it.  Anyway the extra speed translates into increased yin force.

When you live in an environment dominated by yin force then you will naturally eat more yang foods to counteract the cold.  Thus you will become more yang.  This balances the yin environment.  Conversely, if you live in a more yang climate in the tropical zone then you will naturally eat more yin foods and become more yin as a result.

Think about it.  Thanks for reading.

Rice is in the center.

We discussed in a previous post about whole grain brown rice and how, in the temperate zone, it is in the middle of the yin and yang spectrum.  We learned that rice therefore brings balance to the human organism.  So, having learned this, we would expect rice to have a special place in many cultures in recognition of its central role in the diet in much of the world.  Indeed, rice is worshiped as a god in some cultures.  There are rice goddesses worshiped in many southeast Asian countries.  In India rice is so woven into the fabric of the culture that it is the first solid food given to babies.  It is showered on newlyweds as a sign of prosperity even in the United States.

When I started practicing yoga in 2001, I was exposed to a ceremony called Guru Puja.  This is a ceremony of gift giving to the past masters and gurus that have walked the earth.  It is also called "16 ways to treat a Guru".  I was interested to observe that of the many gifts that are presented, rice is not only one of them, but it is the element that is set in the center of the puja set up, and if there is an element missing, rice is substituted for the missing element.  So rice is recognized as the center of life itself.  This is a beautiful expression of the balance that rice brings to life.

I am sure there are many other ways that rice is celebrated for its life giving role in many cultures.  Please share some of them in the comments if you are aware of some.

Thanks for reading.

As important as genetics?

If you are going to have children, consider the impact of excess yin and yang on your child.  Let's say that both partners in a relationship are extreme excess yang from consuming meat and salt.  If they conceive a child under those conditions the child could be born with an excessively yang constitution.  Since babies are already yang this excessive yang could manifest itself as a disease or syndrome.

We haven't talked about "constitution" yet but essentially it means the state of balance that you have when you are born.  A person could have a yang constitution.  Such a person would tend to be small and compact, intense, tight, etc.  A person with a yin constitution might be large and expanded, loose, and very easy going.  A person who has a balanced constitution would be centered in the middle of these factors.  Obviously there is a continuum between the two extremes.

Much research needs to be done in this area but it stands to reason that passing an extreme unbalanced condition to your child could have serious consequences.  We need to consider the importance of passing balance to our children biologically as well as socially.  By ignoring this issue we could be exposing our children to needless danger.

This issue was mostly taken care of when the cultures of the world were intact and unspoiled because the very fabric of each culture was developed to successfully live in a particular geographical location.  Over hundreds of years, each culture "learned" how to live successfully in their place.  Many developed a genetic pattern that was also tied to the location.

Today every race and ethnic group has scattered themselves all over the globe.  So there are millions of people living in places where biologically and culturally the methods that they know that brought them success in their geographical place of origin may not be appropriate to their new location.  So it is much easier for people to become unbalanced in places where their traditional way of living no longer works to their advantage.  Unfortunately it takes hundreds of years to develop new successful cultures the old fashion way.  It takes even longer to develop new genetic patterns tied to a new location.  We must be conscious of these dynamics and account for them.

Genetics is important but the balance of yin and yang may be as important in the future of our human race.

Thanks for reading.

What's a meridian?

Some of you may have heard of meridians in some way. For those of you who have not, a meridian is a channel or line. In the body there is a network of channels called meridians that carry energy through the body. Just like your house is wired for electricity, your body is "wired" with meridians. Acupuncture is a technology, from China, of manipulating energy in the meridians to bring about certain health results.

It has been observed over thousands of years that the energy flowing through these meridians is connected to certain organs. So, for instance, one can affect the health of the kidneys by stimulating a place on the bottom of the foot. This is because there is a meridian connecting the bottom of the foot with the kidneys. All of these connections and relationships have been known and mapped for thousands of years. I attended the Chinese exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art some years ago. They had an antique full size wood carving of a man. On the carving were drilled hundreds of eighth inch holes in a specific pattern. I realized that these holes represented the exit points of the meridians on the surface of the body.

Not only have these meridians been mapped, but it has also been observed that unbalanced living can lead to these channels becoming blocked. Blockage of meridians can lead to pain, and other symptoms in the body. There is a technique called moxibustion where a source of heat, usually a lighted cigarette, is held at the exit point of a specific meridian. The heat draws the energy through the exit point and removes the blockage or stagnation. This technique should only be performed by a trained practitioner so don't try this at home. The point is that when you are balanced, your meridians become open and the energy moves freely though your body the way it is supposed to.

Yang energy comes from above spiraling inward. It enters the top of your head and spirals through the body through the meridians. Yin energy comes from below spiraling outward. It enters the body through the feet and groin and spirals upwards through the body in the meridians. Where yin and yang meet in the body there is a spiral of energy which we call a chakra.

So, many of you may be saying, "I'm doing just fine with my meridians blocked. Thank you." But are you satisfied with just an ordinary life? Would you be interested in an extraordinary life? When your energy is flowing freely in your body, techniques like yoga, tai chi and chi gong have a much greater effect. You also become much more receptive to spiritual factors in your environment. Meditation is easier and deeper. When these meridians are blocked these techniques have to break down these barriers before they can have an effect. If you are helping the process by creating balance in the body then you get multiplied benefits from these pursuits in addition to the health benefits.

Thanks for reading.

A beautiful gift, a marvel.

Once in a while you run across something that works so well or is so highly evolved in its application that you just have to marvel at it.

Today I would like to pay tribute to one of these gifts of culture. This gift is called umeboshi plum. These little marvels come from the Japanese culture and have been used for thousands of years for many purposes. They grow as small green plums on a tree. They are pickled in sea salt for at least a year packed with shiso leaves (from the beefsteak plant) which have red veins. As the pickling process takes place the plums turn a deep pink color. The best ones are pickled for up to three years and these are very powerful.

Umeboshi plum is used to impart vitality and great energy to the body and can be taken about twice a week for this purpose. They can also be used medicinally as a remedy for any kind of trouble in the digestive track. Upset stomach, nausea, diarrhea, bowel issues, etc. can all be relieved by these little gems.

Take my word for it, these small plums have saved me on several occasions. This is an extreme yang application but it is buffered by the fruit so it is more gentle.

They are available in most health food stores and also come in paste form. Take mashed up in some tea and drink the tea (kukicha, bancha twig tea). Oh and each plum contains a surprise bonus. Inside each plum there is a pit. Once you have eaten the plum, take a nut cracker and break open the pit. Inside you will find a small seed kernel. Eat it.

Not recommended for babies and small children below age four as this is a yang application and they are already very yang.

Give them a try. Don't over do it. A little yang goes a long way. Thanks for reading.

Meaty sandwich

I am amazed at how many times a food that I encounter in the vegetarian diet that I eat now gives the same sensations as a food that I used to eat when I was a meat eater.

Silken tofu like scrambled eggs for instance. So when I first put lightly steamed collard greens between two pieces of bread I was skeptical, even for me. Add a slice or two of tomato or cucumber and a little mustard and you have the makings of a great sandwich that has the texture and feel of a meat sandwich. The way my teeth cut down through the greens is so much like when I used to eat meat. This has become one of my favorite lunches.

There are many more examples.

More later. Thanks for reading.

Violence and anger under control

We have discussed some of the basics of maintaining yin and yang balance. One of the greatest benefits of this is the reduction of anger and violence. Are you a violent person? Your going along just fine and then someone cuts you off with their car or says something critical and suddenly you are a totally different person. You just go off and explode. Has this happened to you? Do you feel like you are on a hair trigger? Many of us have had this experience and I personally have wondered where this anger comes from.

One of the things I experienced as I became more balanced was that this "hair trigger" feeling was gone. I was much less prone to impulsive reactions. I was much calmer and could accommodate other's behavior. If I did get angry, it was short lived. I was also able to give up my feelings of hurt. I was able to understand these behaviors in others.

I grew up in an abusive home. After I began to understand how excess yang and excess yin could affect peoples behavior, it helped me to understand how and why my parents could act the way they did.

Excess yin and yang are stressful for both the body and the mind. Studies have shown that crime can be significantly reduced in prison populations when balancing foods are introduced into the diet. When people are more balanced they are much less prone to anger.

Paranoia is another aspect of excess yang. It is an aspect of the tension that excess yang creates in the body and mind. Excess yang can affect us in many extreme ways. We need to recognize the indicators of excess yang and understand how to correct the situation.

How do we correct the excess yang or excess yin condition? Always correct to the middle. We will crave the opposite of what our condition is. But we must add foods in the middle to get the correction that brings balance.

Thanks for reading.

Back to basics

Today we will review some basic concepts about yin and yang.

Where does yang come from? Yang comes from outer space in to earth. The force comes in a spiral and spirals into the top of a human's head. It continues to spiral through the body meeting yin force coming from the other direction.

Where does yin force come from? Yin force is generated by the spinning of the earth. The force radiates outward from the mass of the earth and enters the body from the ground up through the body and exiting out the top. Yin force meets yang force and they spiral together forming the seven primary chakres in the body. Yin force also enters the body as a spiral.

How does yang force manifest? Yang force hits the earth from an insubstantial source, i.e. light, and manifests as its opposite. Its energy condenses into solid matter and intense movement, sound, feeling, etc.

How does yin force manifest? Yin force comes from a substantial force, the mass of the earth, and manifests as its opposite. Its energy expands into ethereal energy and dissipates into the atmosphere.

In our experience, yin force is moving upward or outward and yang force is moving downward or inward.

We experience yang force as intensity, tension, heat, solidity, dry, compactness, condensed, concentrated, substantial matter.

We experience yin force as relaxed, dissipated, cool, wet, expanded, loose, gaseous, ethereal, insubstantial matter.

Extreme yang brings about yin. Extreme yin brings about yang.

Thanks for reading.

Why we have cup holders on shopping carts

I was in a store today shopping for a few things and I noticed that the shopping cart had cup holders. This is a phenomenon that appears out of nowhere one day. What does it mean? It means that the level of thirst in the general population has reached a level that necessitates this kind of thing as well as millions of plastic water bottles used per day.

This never existed when I was a young person. This level of general thirst has evolved over the past 40 years. It indicates that we are becoming much more yang then we were 50 years ago. Why would that happen? Is it global warming?

No, I don't think we can attribute this one to global warming. This has to do with the amount of yang foods that we are consuming. The main culprit is sodium and sodium treated processed foods. First of all, we have become so unbalanced that we don't even see that 600 grams of sodium in a serving of canned soup is a problem. And then, of course, we eat more than one serving. One pretzel from the mall stand blasts our system with enough sodium to last a week. Treated meat like ham, beef jerky, hot dogs, sausage etc. flood our system with sodium and also create stagnation in the body so it becomes difficult to remove.

These are just a few examples of the levels of sodium that we are consuming and feeding our children. This excessive yang creates a craving for yin which is initially expressed as thirst. We need to drink enormous amounts of water to balance this kind of sodium intake. So much so now that we have to carry a water bottle everywhere we go.

This puts tremendous stress on the body and affects the very tissue of our body in a very stressful way. This condition leads to high blood pressure, heart disease, the feeling of stress, panic attacks, insomnia and many other conditions.

One of the traits of yang is "small and compact". When some object or organism is small and compact, it is an expression of yang energy. Which of us are small and compact? Babies. Yes babies pack all of the intensity of a human being into a small and compact unit. So babies are yang to begin with. As they grow, they become more and more yin. So the rule says, if an organism is yang, then they need to consume yin foods to balance the yang condition. So when you feed your 18 month old child french fries with the normal amount of salt on them, they are going to become immediately excess yang possibly at a dangerous level. This condition usually results in screaming, inability to rest or be still, tantrums, anger and meanness and other expressions of excess yang.

My fear is that this condition is having long term affects on the quality of our children's health and the quality of the future of the human race as a whole.

You can not imagine how beautiful and easy a balanced child is.

Thanks for reading.

Rice is nice

I first got started with this yin and yang technology about 25 years ago when I was about 37 years old. I had gotten divorced from my first wife and I was pretty frightened about my future. I was overweight at about 180 lbs. and I had an ample beer belly. I didn't feel attractive and I felt sluggish and lazy. What to do? I was in Sunday school class one week and one of the members mentioned that an elderly woman in the church had cancer and was trying to cure herself with a diet called macrobiotics.

I had heard of this diet in the 60's when I had first gotten married but I had written it off at that time. I decided to do some research and see what it was about. I went to the library and got a book about the diet and found out after reading it that macrobiotics is much more than a diet. Macrobiotics is the technology of balancing yin and yang in your body, in your house, in your neighborhood and in your community. I was amazed to learn that such a technology existed and that I could adopt it in my own life.

At the time I was a typical unbalanced diet consumer. I loved meat and ate it with gusto along with eggs, and other high protein foods. My first wife and I loved to cook and we had an assortment of gourmet cookbooks which we used often. One of the recipes that we loved to make was red beans and rice, a traditional southern favorite. It called for ham hocks cooked long and slow with red beans. Yummy. The recipe also called for whole grain brown rice. Because we liked this recipe so much, we were in the habit of keeping a box of brown rice in the cupboard.

From what I had read, I knew that brown rice was in the middle of the yin and yang spectrum and so I decided to try an experiment. I wanted to test out this "technology" and see if what these people were saying had any merit. I pulled out that box of rice and cooked it up.

I started adding brown rice to every meal that I could. In addition, I started eating other whole grains such as rolled oats, barley, etc.

Within two weeks I started to lose weight. Within a month my taste for meat seemed to be reduced. Within three months I had lost 25 lbs and had lost my taste for meat almost entirely. I was starting to feel different. My blood sugar levels evened out and I stopped having mood swings. My anger levels were much reduced and I felt much calmer, less stressed.

I was amazed with these results. Suddenly all of the problems that I had been having with my body, headaches, colds, flu, pains, etc. simply disappeared. I began to be able to control my diet and even my mind became clearer. My life became less about food because my cravings had reduced so much. I was satisfied which was a tremendous freedom for me.

Since that time rice has continued to amaze me with its versatility and its ability to solve so many issues. I call brown rice my first guru and I credit it with saving my life in many ways.

More in the next post.

Thanks for reading.

Steve

August the first

It's the first of August and yang force is in full bloom where I live in midwest USA. It is getting drier and it is very hot. This is a time to consume yin foods and liquids to keep the body cool. Swimming, cool showers, and cool drinks and summer fruits all help to balance the yang environment.

I spent the past week with my three grandchildren. They are 8, 5, and 2 in age. They are 100, 150 and 200 in decibels. They are lots of fun. They display many classic signs of out of balance conditions. I was noticing how the activity level would shift from yang to yin and back to yang again. My oldest grandson loves sports and athletic activity of every type. We played catch with the baseball every day. He practiced throwing the frisbee and went to the pool to swim. These activities are of the yang category. Yin activity would be sleeping, board games, visiting with relatives, etc. The little one would go, go, go until she just could not go anymore at which point sleep would overtake her. Sometimes aggressive, sometimes passive. She would swing from one expression to another.

They are very entertaining and I was sorry to see them go.

I look forward to our next visit.

Thanks for reading.

Discharge explained

The body has many built in defense mechanisms to protect itself from our lack of proper management. One of the most powerful is discharge. Discharge is the body's way of rebalancing yin and yang. When a person cuts an onion, they are exposed to an extreme yin substance. If the body is already in an excess yin state, then the body will discharge yin. So the person's eyes will water and sting. Another common example is when a person eats a food that is very spicy. The spice is extreme yin and if the person has excess yin accumulated in the body, their nose will run. This is an example of an immediate discharge of excess yin which rebalances the body by getting rid of the excess. The rule of nature says, "No excess, no discharge." This means that if your body is in a balanced state it won't react to these substances.

There are many forms of discharge. What you call a cold or flu is simply the body's way of discharging excess yin and yang. It is a mechanism to get rid of toxic substances that have built up in the body over a period of time. These discharge mechanisms can be triggered in many ways. Starting to eat a balanced diet can trigger discharge as the body starts to balance. As the body begins to balance, it wants to get rid of any excess, both yin and yang.

Yin has a tendency to rise in the body and is usually discharged upward. Yang has a tendency to sink in the body and so is usually discharged downward. So, for instance, if your nose is running, this indicates a yin discharge. Headache is another discharge mechanism and is a yin discharge. Whereas congestion in the chest is a yang discharge. Normal elimination is also a significant discharge. Exhalation is another significant way in which the body eliminates toxins from its tissue. Skin is primarily a discharge organ. Perspiration is the main way that it operates. When the tissue beneath the skin becomes clogged with excess then skin eruptions will occur. This is why it is important to keep the skin well stimulated, i.e. with scrubbing, so that the pores can let the needed excess escape. Exercise and activity in general is another way the body uses excess yin and yang. People who are hyperactive are exhibiting excess yang.

In a situation where a person is eating an extreme yin and extreme yang diet, such as the typical American diet, the body can become excess yin and excess yang at the same time. This condition can overwhelm the various discharge mechanisms used by the body. When these discharge mechanisms become overwhelmed, excess can stagnate in the body and these stagnations can result in many chronic conditions such as arthritis, gout, athletes foot, hemorrhoids, etc.

It is very important to allow the body to maintain a balanced condition. This allows us to avoid many of these discharge incidents.

When my son was maybe four or five, he started having chronic ear infections. We tried all kinds of remedies prescribed by our doctor. His grandfather was a pediatrician so we got plenty of good medical advice. But the real issue was excess that the body was trying to get rid of through the ear canal. Had we known how to balance his body at that time we could have avoided all of those problems.

Another example occurred with my son as well. He would get these monster migraine headaches. Eventually I began to recognize a pattern to the onset of these migraines. They would happen when he would eat sugar during the afternoon and then supper would be late. If supper was late, he would begin a headache and would be down till the next day. As I began to learn about balancing yin and yang, I tried a remedy on him to see what would happen. The remedy was called tekka. Tekka is a black powder that is actually the charred residue of three or four vegetables that have been baked in the oven for about four hours making it extremely yang. To apply the remedy you mix the powder with a little tea and have the subject drink it. I gave this remedy to my son after the onset of one of his headaches and within two hours, the headache was gone. I was amazed. I keep this mixture, which is available at health food stores, handy at all times. I have not needed to use it again.

Discharge is a very complex issue with the body and we will discuss it more in another post. The most critical distinction to make here is that these discharge mechanisms need to be allowed to execute as much as possible so that toxins are removed from the body. Instead of treating these symptoms as an illness and trying to stop them, we need to recognize them for what they are and allow them to do their most vital work.

Thanks for reading.

Heatwave

As much of the USA is enjoying a heatwave this week, let's talk a bit about keeping cool when it is so hot. A heatwave is the expression of extreme yang force so as we said, we have to apply yin force to the body to balance the yang force from the weather. So, your impulse to grill out your food is not the best way to keep cool. Grilling is an extreme yang style of cooking and the meat that you cook on the grill will simply make you hotter because it is an extreme yang food.

In order to keep cool you need to increase your intake of yin foods which are close to the center. These foods will include raw vegetables such as salads, carrot sticks, celery, cucumber, radishes, and other vegetables. Lightly cooked vegetables are also cooling so Chinese cabbage blanched in boiling water for a minute and then cooled can be refreshing. Steamed kale and collard greens are also great. Fruit is also cooling. The bigger the fruit or vegetable, the more yin it is. Watermelon and other melons are effective in cooling the body. Avoid fried foods and salty foods as they are heat producing. Grains and beans may be taken at room temperature or out of the refrigerator. Nothing like a cold bean sandwich on a hot day.

Here is one thing I like on a hot day. I put about three quarters of a cup of liquid in the blender. I add a small apple, quartered and cored. I add some frozen blueberries and about 3 or 4 leaves of kale which has been steamed for a minute or two. I blend this all together and adjust the liquid to the correct consistency so it is not too thick. This smoothy is great on a hot day and is a great way to eat greens with a little sweetness.

Stay cool.

Thanks for reading.

How do we balance?

Last post we discussed some of the basic ways that yin and yang affect our lives.  We learned that where we live matters in how we maintain balance.  We learned that foods that we eat affect the balance of yin and yang in the body.  We learned that exposure to sunlight and cold can affect the balance of the body.  Today let's look at some foods that affect our balance.

First, let's assume that we live in a temperate zone as opposed to a tropical or arctic zone.  In a temperate zone we experience a contrast of seasons to a much greater degree than in the other zones.  Summer is the time when yang dominates as the weather becomes hot and dry.  Winter is the time when yin dominates as the sun recedes toward the equator and becomes less intense because of its angle to the earth.  Spring and Fall are transition seasons when the weather swings from yang to yin and back to yang again.  Certain kinds of fruit and vegetables grow in this zone reflecting the balance of yin and yang that they are exposed to.

In a temperate zone where we have seasons, we need to adjust our diet to be in balance with each season.  So in summer when yang dominates the environment, it is more appropriate to eat foods that have a yin effect to balance the yang environment.  In the winter, when yin dominates the environment, it is more appropriate to eat more yang foods to balance the yin environment.  So which foods are yin and which foods are yang?

Traditional cultures observed the relationship of many different foods to each other.  They developed the ability to rank all foods as to which ones are more yin and which ones are more yang.  They also observed that some foods were in the middle of the yin and yang spectrum.  For example, one of the most yang foods is salt.  Salt exhibits yang characteristics.  It is hard, dense, compact, and intense.  It is an extreme yang food when taken by itself.  An extreme yin substance would be alcohol.  It exhibits yin characteristics.  It is wet, evaporates easily, and creates yin characteristics when introduced into the body.  Fruit is more yin than vegetables.  Beans are more yang than vegetables.  Grains are in the middle of the spectrum but still more yang than beans.  Fish is more yang than grain.  Meat is more yang than fish.  Salted or smoked meat is more yang than uncured meat.  Salt and charred food is more yang than cured meat.

Each category of food has its own variety of yin and yang.  For instance, if we look at grains, there are yin grains and yang grains.  Buckwheat is a yang grain and was used historically to combat the harsh climate of Russia and Mongolia.  Brown rice is in the middle of the grain spectrum.  Corn is a yin grain which you can see by its size and lack of density compared to other grains.  Millet is a grain which is small and compact which would make it more yang but it does not have the density of rice for instance because it is more hollow so it is actually more yin than rice.  Even within varieties of grains there are variations of yin and yang.  Brown rice, for example, comes in many varieties.  Short grain brown rice is more yang so is more appropriate for northern temperate zone whereas long grain brown rice is appropriate for southern temperate zones.  Medium grain brown rice is in the middle.

If our goal is to achieve and maintain balance in a temperate zone location, then we eat foods from the middle of the spectrum for the temperate zone.  So a balanced diet in the temperate zone consists of whole grain in the center with vegetables, both cooked and raw, bean products, fruits, sea vegetables, and fish.  This diet is then adjusted for local conditions and seasons.  This means we eat foods that grow in our zone and are in season.  We don't eat foods that grow in tropical zones because they are exposed to a very different balance of yin and yang than we are.  We supplement this central diet with meat when we are doing hard physical labor and when we are enduring cold weather.  Fermentation is a "cooking" process as it helps to break down the substance of the vegetables making them easier to digest.  It is also a way of mellowing the harsh qualities of salt so they impact the body more gently.  Soups are an effective way of introducing foods to the body in a gentle way which the body can readily process.

Next post we will talk more about how the body handles extreme yin and yang foods.  Thanks for reading.  Let me know if this is making sense to you in the comments.

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How does it work for living beings?

Last post we looked at some of the conditions that result from yin and yang being out of balance in one's body.  Every person is unique so yin and yang may affect them in unique ways.  What symptoms one person has from a certain input may not be the same for another person.  The forces are working in the same way for all living creatures.  So to establish balance we need to understand a few concepts.

First, it matters where you live north to south.  The balance point for a person living at the arctic circle is much different from a person living at or near the equator.  The input received by a person living at the arctic circle is much different from a person living at or near the equator.  Every being is being bombarded by these two forces without ceasing.  Yang force is constantly incoming to the surface of the earth and you are receiving it.  Every being that lives around you is receiving the same force that you are.  Yin force is constantly generated by the spinning of the earth which never takes a break.  The effect of these two forces is to establish a balance point for the area where you live for all living beings even plants.  So the carrot growing in your garden is receiving the same balance of yin and yang that you are.  It's root is an expression of yang and its leafy tops are an expression of yin force.

The balance point establishes a level of yin and yang force that is balanced thereby making the being stable.  It is this stability upon which we maintain our well being.  Traditional cultures in Asia observed this process of balance and found out that it is affected by the food that we eat as well as our exposure to sunlight and cold.  Over the centuries many of these cultures found out which foods had a more yang effect and which foods had a more yin effect.  They observed that some foods were extreme yin and some foods were extreme yang.  They observed that when a person ate foods that were extreme yang the result was excess yang in the body.  This upset the balance of the body and disturbed the well being of the person.  They also observed that when this balance was upset on the yang side it produced a need for yin foods to bring the body back in to balance.  This need is experienced as a craving.

They also observed that the whole process worked in reverse as well so excess yin also upset the balance and resulted in a need for yang foods.  They learned over time that if they maintained the balance of these two forces as expressed where they live they enjoyed greater well being, had fewer problems, and generally lived longer and better lives.

The key to maintaining balance in the body was observed to be the consumption of foods from the middle of the yin - yang spectrum and the avoidance of extreme foods and other substances.  As they naturally ate the foods that grew around them, they naturally consumed foods that were exposed to the same balance of yin and yang that they as humans were.  So naturally they maintained balance.  Since they were used to living in a balanced condition, any factor that upset the balance was obvious to them because it produced conditions that were unpleasant.  These conditions were eventually looked upon as illness.

So yin and yang are constantly working to achieve a balanced state in whatever manifestation they express.  In the example of the carrot, if drought conditions prevail, eventually the carrot will become too dry and soon the plant will wilt and die.  As we have talked about in the characteristics page, yang is hot and dry.  Yin is wet and cool.  In order to grow successfully the plant must be exposed to a balance of both yin and yang.  Same with humans and other beings.  Excess yin and yang can be dangerous to the organism.  Both can exist in the body at the same time.

Next post we will look at more specifically how we create a balanced diet that maintains our balance point.  Thanks for reading.

Why should I care?

Most people know so little about these two forces that they unknowingly let them mess up their life in many ways.  That's correct.  Yin and Yang can mess up your life if you let them get out of balance.

Let's look for a moment at what an out of balance condition looks like for a human being:

A person who is excess yang, which means that they have consumed too much yang food (more on that later), will be tense.  They will be stressed.  They may be on a hair trigger with anger.  They may have panic attacks or exhibit paranoia.  They may be compulsive in many ways.  They may be hyperactive.  They may grit their teeth in their sleep.  They may develop heart problems.  They may crave sugar and sweets.  They may drink alcohol to excess.  They may take drugs, or do drugs.  Their hair at the crown may fall out.

A person who is excess yin, which means they have consumed too much yin food (defined later), may sleep to excess.  They may have nasal discharge.  They may snore.  They may develop hemorrhoids.  They will have "allergies".  They may develop asthma.  They may develop sleep apnea.  They may crave salty foods and dry foods.  They may develop a hernia.  Their hair at the front may fall out.  They may have fever and flu symptoms.

Do any of these conditions sound familiar?  When you know how to balance these two forces you can avoid many of these conditions.  Knowing how yin and yang affect your life allows you to take charge of the process and eliminate the annoying if not dangerous conditions.

In my next post we will discuss more about how yin and yang work and how we can use these forces to our advantage to enhance our wellbeing.

Thanks for reading.

How do I know?

How do I know if something is Yin or Yang?  The truth is that every manifestation of these two forces is an expression of both forces.  It is only in comparison to something else that an object or being is said to be more Yin or more Yang.  So for instance, a rock is more yang than water or water is more yang than air.  This is determined by knowing the characteristics of Yin and Yang.  We will list them here.  There are quite a few ways in which these forces interact.

Yang characteristics:  hotter, dryer, more dense, more intense,  expressive.
Yin characteristics:   colder, wetter, less dense, less intense,  receptive.

Yang characteristics:  harder, stronger, aggressive, tighter.
Yin characteristics:  softer, weaker, passive, looser.

Yang characteristics:  active, loud, contracting, fast, light, male.
Yin characteristics:  inactive, soft, expanding, slow, dark, female.

Can you see that a rock is more dense than water?  So, a rock is more yang than water.  Or we could say water is more yin than rock.  Can you see that a diamond is more dense than limestone?  So a diamond is more yang than limestone.  Can you see that winter is more yin than summer because it is colder and wetter and darker?  Summer is an expression of yang characteristics like hot, dry, active, and brighter.

Does this make sense?  See if you can see some other characteristics which are opposite.  We will look at this some more in the next post.  Thanks for reading.

Introduction

This blog is going to explore the dynamics of two forces which affect our lives in profound ways.  Yin and Yang are two forces which are not clearly understood by most people.  Here we will try to reach an understanding of how these forces act in our lives and how we can live with them in a positive way.  I look forward to your input and the opportunity to enhance the understanding of these forces as we go forward.

So what are these two forces and why should we care about them.  Yin and Yang are the two elemental forces in the universe.  These two forces manifest themselves in millions of ways to express all matter and non matter in the cosmos.  From the vantage point of our planet earth Yang is sunlight, moonlight, starlight, and all radiation coming into the surface of the planet.  Yin is the force that is created by the spinning of the earth.  It is also called centrifugal force.  It can be created in a minute scale by tying an object to the end of a string and swinging it around your hand.  If you let go of the string while the object is spinning, it will fly off away from the center of the swing.  This is a demonstration of Yin force.  Yang force is also called centripetal force.  These two forces meet at the surface of the earth and spiral together in many ways.  These two forces are active in every manifestation and operate according to strict rules.  The main function of these two forces is to achieve a state of balance.  More next time.  Thanks for reading.