What are yin and yang?

Yin and yang are the basic tenets of traditional Chinese medicine, yet when I am asked in clinic what they are I find myself fumbling to explain them. They are so basic and underlie almost everything I do, so much so that I don't often question how to describe them. I wanted to give an idea of what they are and an illustration of how they work together, especially since this time of year provides such a good example.At both their most simple and most complex, yin and yang are opposites. Everything and anything you can think of can be described as either very yin, very yang, or more commonly some degree of a mix between the two. Things which are more yin are hidden, darker, quieter, perhaps wetter. Yang types of things are bright, energetic, growing, moving, and changing. Yin is a feminine energy and yang is more masculine. Picture a hillside in the early morning: the side being warmed and brightened by the sun is more yang, and the side still dark and covered with dew is more yin.You never have yin or yang alone--they always work as a pair. Now, sometimes you'll have a situation where something is skewed so strongly in one direction or the other that imbalance starts to occur (and you need to visit your acupuncturist!). But one of the more interesting aspects of yin and yang is that at their extremes they begin to transform into one another. This can be explained using the example of the solstice.The winter solstice, which we will experience on December 21, is a time of ultimate yin. We are deepest into our journey away from the sun. The days are shortest and the night is longest. We're inspired to hibernate. But I always like to take note of the solstice because it is then, even if we can't sense it at first, that the days begin to lengthen toward spring. Like a pendulum beginning to swing in the opposite direction, yang is returning to our lives. I find it comforting to note the couple of extra minute of sunlight we begin to receive, even as it gets colder here in Chicago. If you're feeling the winter blues, I invite you to join me in finding and celebrating yang elements in this cold, yin-predominant season.

Autumn Refresh

Although the Chicago weather might encourage us to pretend it’s still summer, today we enter the season of autumn. Trees are slowly turning gold and we can sense the days shortening. I see this as a time of great opportunity. To me, it almost makes more sense to set a goal to give something up at this time of year, rather than on January 1. We can take inspiration from the natural world:When the days begin to shorten in the fall, a tree responds to the lessening of sunlight and cuts off circulation to its leaves, pulling back its resources to the essential trunk and roots. The leaves dry up and fall away, and as they return to the earth they enrich the soil the tree grows from. In this way the tree survives the short, cold days of winter. It can reproduce its foliage in the spring, when once again resources will be abundant.The tree is a metaphor, but our bodies go through a similar transition. In my practice I talk with my patients about their feelings at this time of year. Many people notice a turning-inward, an inclination to hibernation, or a desire to snuggle up at home with warm carbs. We can all understand the impulse to sleep earlier and be a little less social when the days are short. These feelings are natural because our bodies are part of nature. We don't need to fight them, and in fact I would suggest we embrace them. There is opportunity here that I invite you not to pass up.With shorter days comes more time for introspection and possibly self-improvement. We all have things we hold on to that no longer serve us. Whether it is a grudge, old clothes, a habit, or a hairstyle, the autumn energy can inspire us to release the old to make way for the new. As these things fall away, we may be able to see more clearly the path to further growth. Maybe take a minute today to write down a few goals for the fall season, harnessing the potential of this time. Think of it as the start of a new era, rather than the end of an old.

Why I love acupuncture as a medicine

You may already know this, but when I started college in 1998 I was pre-med.  I wanted to be an ER doctor.  Theater was more fun though, so even though I felt a strong calling to be in a profession where I felt I was directly helping people, I finished school as a lighting design major.In 2005 I again made a small foray into the world of Western medicine when I attended school and got my EMT certification: again, emergency medicine.  I really thought that was the way to satisfy my desire to help people--you know, be there when they needed me most.  But even before I graduated I knew it wasn't for me.  You perform the same tasks for every patient, the same basic skills, and then you let them go and may never find out what happened to them.  In the meantime, there's a ton of paperwork AND a uniform.In 2010 I attended an open house at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, where I would graduate in four years with a degree in acupuncture and herbal medicine.  Those four years were no cakewalk, and there were many opportunities when I could have done what a lot of students in that program did, and walk away.  But I kept at it, because finally I started to feel as though I'd be helping people the way I wanted to.Chinese medicine looks at the body as a symphony of systems working together in harmony to create a healthy human being.  Each organ depends on each other one for its functions.  Fluids and energy are created not by any single part of the body, but rather by the body systems in concert.  You only get health when each individual part is healthy.  If any organ or system is out of balance, it throws everything else off.What makes Chinese medicine different from Western, and what appeals to me, is that it works by determining the underlying cause for the disease or dysfunction in question, and operating on that cause.  We would say we treat the root, rather than the branch.  We treat the cause, not the effect; or the reason rather than the outcome.  This is why three different people who come to an acupuncturist with similar headaches would be treated with three different point prescriptions.  One of those people might have an excess in a particular body system, one might have stagnation in a channel, and one might have a deficiency somewhere else.  The four years of training we go through enables us as licensed practitioners to determine which of those people you are, and how to help lead you to a healthy balance within your body and your mind.As an acupuncturist, I'm still here when you need me most.  Sometimes I'm the only person who can listen to all of your complaints and be able to tell you, "Yes, this all makes sense to me.  I think I can help you."   I can work with my patients for however long it takes to resolve their problems, and I get to see a result that both of us can be happy with.  My end goal is to enable my patients to go for months without needing to come in to see me, because we have reached a point where they understand their bodies well enough to know what they can do to help themselves, and because we have worked to restore balance.  Not having become an MD I can't say for sure, but I think that I have landed in the right place for me, a profession that I will find satisfying for years to come.