Do you ever find yourself running on empty? Does it feel like you are on the go all the time, lots to do and yet finding it hard to get meaningful work done? Do you have difficulty letting go and relaxing? Do you find you rarely have time alone? You may be suffering from what the Taoists call empty yang. This is an ancient understanding but has so much relevance to modern lifestyles, perhaps more so than ever.

Let’s start with the basics. Taoism and Chinese Medicine are based on an understanding of opposite energy forms in life, which are called yin and yang.

Yin describes when energy is contracted, such as in winter when the life-forms of nature go into hibernation and rest, the energy is stored deep in the seeds underground. In winter humans also contract, drawing the energy in to keep warm. Night time is another yin time when we rest in our beds, our life force energy deep inside the body creating restoration and renewal. Our energy is in a yin state when we are resting, quiet and alone.

Yang describes when energy is expanded. In summer energy pours outwards and everything is in full bloom. Flowers are radiant, bees are buzzing in the air, trees full of leaves. There is a fullness as energy expands. People also express this expansiveness by being more social, wearing brighter colours and walking with a spring in their step! Our energy is in a yang state when we are feeling lively, active and social.

These are states of energy. There are not fixed, nor are they separate. A person cannot be called simply yin or yang, as all life is in flux between the two. Energy has to be in constant flux by its nature, and this flow from yin to yang keeps our energy smooth flowing, balanced and natural. If we allow our energy to move from yang expansion to yin contraction and back again, then we stay healthy and harmonious. We get things done when we are in the yang phase and we restore our energy in the yin phase. It is the most effective way to be.

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Shashi Solluna

Shashi is one of the founding teachers of Tao Tantric Arts. 

Her healthcare work began when she managed a detox center in South Thailand, supervising fasts, cleanses and dietary guidance. She went on to study Taoist nutrition and health, and worked for Master Mantak Chia as a nutritional consultant and health author for Tao Garden Resort.

Empty Yang is a situation in which we favour yang over yin, and so do not receive enough yin rest and grounding. If you decide that to be active, social and high is better than being rested, alone and deep…you can push your energetics out of balance. Modern society really supports being “high all the time”. If this high is not coming from deep rest and stillness (deep yin) we start to push it using our adrenals, often with the help of substances such as coffee, black tea, sugar, energy drinks and even stimulant drugs like cocaine. There are even apparently healthy ways to stay high all the time such as eating a lot of raw foods and eating stimulants such as raw cacao and energizing herbs. But if our energy is not seeded from deep yin resting states then it will start to become empty yang.

The result is that when we push the yang without restoring the yin regularly, we start to buzz on a superficial energy. This is a type of empty energy. It is characterized by being buzzing. You know when your adrenals are running the show because you feel a bit shaky, a bit scattered. You feel highly motivated but often get nothing of any value or real substance created. I remember times at university writing late night essays on Red Bull (before I know any better!)…and feeling all super-charged, but really being too scattered to focus. In those times I was turning out very mediocre essays and afterwards would always have an energy crash.

Nowadays it is easy for people to get all fired up and sit at the internet doing nothing of any value. Simply scattering all that energy by “going down rabbit holes”…clicking on one link after another but not really creating anything of value. You may feel a sense of importance and power, but it is false! Beware the adrenals!! The personality can also feel “hyper-real”…feeling inauthentic and false, expressing very superficially and lacking any real depth. It is hard to have deep and intimate relationships when you are excessively yang.

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The trouble is, an empty yang adrenal state is very addictive. It is that sense of power and energy that makes it so addictive. But it is a false god! (It is called the ‘false masculine’ in Taoism) You feel fired up but will find that you are creating very little of substance in your life. Plus you burn out easily and feel stressed. There really is no advantage to empty yang! The ancient Chinese also warned that such a state is the fastest route to aging. They would see the kidneys as batteries holding our store of life force energy, or jing chi. This jing chi is the source of our sexual energy and vitality. To push that energy out in an empty yang way is to waste your life force energy and burn up your vitality.

The answer? The yin. The precious yin! Yin restoration. We can restore our yin reserves with: nature, silence, aloneness, meditation, deep sleep, grounding foods. Also there are many specific qigong (energy work) practices for restoring the yin, but you need to learn these from a teacher directly. You also have to make a choice, a conscious choice. Are you willing to let go of the high, willing to let go of pushing yourself into a buzzing state, and drop into a more natural rhythm? Can you surrender to life’s natural harmonious rhythms instead of trying to push yourself into an artificial state?

Our whole world has become out of balance, with excessive stimulation, 24-hour lighting and too much emphasis on being high. There is a global calling, most especially in the developed world, for a return to balance. There is a deep cry for the precious yin…for rest, nature, darkness and silence to balance the excesses which have become the norm. May we hear that cry and restore balance that we may live in harmony and well being.



Below are some suggestions based on Tao practices to help support your return to a state of balance and harmony.

Zeroing
Often when we have been pushing empty yang for a long time, we need a retreat to drop the whole system down to zero and start afresh. The dropping can feel like a come-down, and people find they feel depressed and exhausted for a few days. This is just the system rebalancing itself after being pushed to a false high for so long.

A heath retreat center, a quiet one, is a perfect place to do this. Here are some steps to restoring the yin:

·      Choose a retreat in nature. Water is the most yin part of nature so the sea, a river or a calm lake can be good.

·      Switch off all phones and computers. Setup your vacation response…you need this time to go deeply into the yin with no distractions. The internet scatters our chi all over the place!!

·      Walk in nature. Be in silence.

·      Listen to only very slow music with no rhythm. Tibetan bell music is superb for dropping into the yin.

·      Wear an eye mask and stay in a lot of darkness.

·      Go to bed before 10am, preferably even earlier.

·      Spend some time each day just watching your breath and deepening it.

·      If you can access a relaxation spa, then go and enjoy the pools, saunas and steam rooms. Hydrotherapy is a supreme way to restore the yin.

·      Eat healthy but grounding foods. Steamed veggies, whole grains, root vegetables, miso soup (very grounding) and add some Himalayan rock salt as this has a deeply grounding effect.

·      Have a relaxing massage with aromatherapy oils to relax the body. Your therapist will know what to use.

If you have been living in a forced yang state for a while, you may find at first that you are fidgety and do not want to ‘do nothing’. Let yourself walk in nature until you start to slow down. Avoid temptation to run or cycle, for now, just walk until you slow down.

Yin Meditation
A powerful mediation to help you drop down to the yin is called “sinking your grounding chord”. You sit under a tall tree. Tall trees have deep roots. 

·      As you sit, feel the roots going into the earth beneath you. 

·      Close your eyes. Take a deep breath in and exhale a big sigh a few times, letting go of excess energy into the earth. Become heavy. 

·      Start to imagine a root going into the earth from the base of your spine. Send your imagination down into the soil, the rocks, the dark moist soil. This is the Yin of nature. Feel it.

·      Keep exhaling excess energy down down down into the earth.

·      After some time you can start to drink the yin: feel the deep watery energy in the earth, like a still dark underground lake. Draw it’s calming energy up through your roots and into your body.

·      Drink up this yin chi most especially to your kidneys in your lower back. This will restore them after the adrenal pumping of the past and switch them from fight or fight and into rest and relaxation.

·      Then just sit, leaning back against the tree and rest in the yin energy field.