the medicine of opposites

Every time we choose harmony, we give birth to something new.

I spend a lot of time looking for ways to bring harmony and balance into my life. I can hold a greater capacity for more, bigger, beautiful, evolving and confronting experiences because I reach for the medicine of opposites.

It’s a concept that originates in both Ayurveda, the principle that "everything can be medicine" and Traditional Chinese Medicine, the basic idea of the “yin- yang theory”.

Ayurveda recognises that our daily choices and lifestyle habits have the potential to influence our overall balance and promote homeostasis. Like increases like, and opposites cancel each other out. It is natural to warm ourselves when it is cold, to moisturise our skin when it is dry, to eat cooling foods when we are hot, and to need more rest when we are stressed.

TCM nods to the two natural, complementary and contradictory forces in our universe, the principle of opposite polarity and duality. The meaning of yin and yang is that the universe is governed by a cosmic duality, and sets off two opp…