The Gift Of Yinning & Yanging

After a wonderful, 10-day hiking trip at the end of August, I found myself in excruciating pain – unable to walk, sit, stand or lie down. Drugs were not helpful. Physical therapy only took the initial edge off. My yoga therapist (I have practiced restorative yoga for about eight years and meditation for about 30) made a difference, as did my chiropractor. But these were only incremental shifts. My talented team of health practitioners cautioned that the road to recovery was going to be slow.

During the first weeks of this, I did not sleep more than an hour or two at a time, constantly waking in pain. About ten days in, I saw a “T’ai Chi” teacher with Regis Philbin on television. I listened to stories about people who regained their strength and became pain free through this practice. As a student of T’ai Chi Chih for about six months, I realized that I already knew a similar practice. I slowly got out of bed and started just “yinning and yanging,” shifting the weight forward and back.

No hand movements, just back and forth three times on each side. I could barely move but I persisted. During the next few weeks I continued yinning and yanging multiple times per day. I went from three to six to nine on each side and eventually to four sets of nine. I was still unable to do hand movements, but began to feel hopeful that I might eventually be mobile. Then the oddest thing happened: while sleeping, I dreamt I was doing TCC. It was surreal, yet very reassuring: the universe was doing TCC for me.

In early October, during a private TCC lesson, I received two significant additions to my practice: a CD by Justin and a shortened version of the Nei Kung meditative prayer to recite when going to sleep. I continued yinning and yanging and adding bit by bit to my practice. Three weeks later I did my first full TCC practice.

I am truly grateful to study TCC with Sheryl Adair. I believe that my TCC practice helped me recover more quickly than would otherwise have been possible. TCC helped me move back into my body and to feel balanced and calm. Even more basic – just simply yinning and yanging – was transformative on every level and something that I continue to do daily.