Life Balance and How It Affects Health

Balance is the topic of today's #TCMTuesday blog.  I have referred several times in my previous blog entries to this concept of balance.  But what is it exactly?

Merriam-Webster's dictionary definitions are widely varied depending on what connotation of "balance" we are referring to.  For the sake of brevity, I have chosen the definitions most suited to this topic.  As a verb, the word Balance means "to bring into harmony or proportion," while as a noun, it means "physical equilibrium" and "mental and emotional steadiness."

In and in the posts about Meridians ( and ), I mentioned the word balance several times.  In effect, the meaning that I am going for is living life without too much, or too little.  It seems like I am telling the story of Goldilocks, looking for the porridge that is not too hot and not too cold, but just right.  And really, in a nutshell this is what it boils down to:  we each have our own individual balance point.

In TCM, balance is in every aspect of our medicine.  Most people have seen the "yin and yang" (pronounced "yin" and "yong", respectively) symbol associated with Far East Asian philosophies, not only in medicine but in religion as well.  This symbol is representative of the fluid balance of life itself - yin is dark but becomes yang, yang is light but becomes yin.  The opposite colored dots within yin and yang indicate that within every yin there is the presence of yang, and within every yang there is the presence of yin.  Fundamentally, everything can be classified as yin, yang, or a combination of the two.  So, in this medicine, we take into account your mind, your body, and your emotional state, including factors such as work, family, activities, social relations, diet, nutrition, personality, stress factors and emotional outlets.  We do this because these factors, amongst others, can cause you to lose sight of the equilibrium in which we are meant to exist and live our lives.

The extensive intake process, which we talked about in , along with other testing measures (blood, saliva, even genetic!) can tell me where your balance point should be, and together we figure out how to get you there.  Ultimately I am here to promote wellness, which means that I find the way to help you feel empowered to make the journey to reach your personal balance point, which will increase your quality of life. 

At the end of the day, we all want to sleep in the bed that is just right, don't we?

--Marissa Byrum, AP, DOM, Dipl. Ac., is an associate at Ideal Balance Center for Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine in Temple Terrace, FL.