Yin & Yang Explained Through Qigong | Balancing Complimentary Energies with Simple Flow Practices

Discover how Yin and Yang move together as one continuous current, not as opposites but as complimentary forces shaping every movement in nature, and within you. In this Forge and Flow session, Mark guides you into an embodied understanding of these energies through simple Qigong motions and mindful awareness. You’ll explore how duality softens into harmony, how breath becomes a bridge, and how working with both sides of the body reveals a deeper rhythm of balance.

This practice includes foundational stances, energy-ball rotations, and traditional movements like Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane and Separating Heaven and Earth. Whether you’re new to Qigong or deepening your path, this flow helps cultivate steadiness, clarity, and a grounded sense of internal alignment. Tune in, breathe with intention, and restore your place in the natural harmony of Yin and Yang.

OR READ THE TRANSCRIPT BELOW

Have you ever found yourself caught in a state of “either/or” thinking, this or that, right or left, his or her? In our modern world, duality is often perceived as two forces locked in opposition. But in nature, Yin and Yang are not enemies. They are complementary, interdependent, and continuously harmonizing.

We can see this in the most timeless way: the shifting relationship between light and shadow. Day and night move in a gentle, ongoing cycle, neither trying to dominate the other, always yielding in rhythm. The ancient Yin–Yang symbol was created through this simple observation of nature itself.

If you’d like a deeper exploration of Yin and Yang, I created a full breakdown in a separate session. It’s a beautiful foundation for understanding energy within Qigong practice.

Balancing energy is at the heart of Qigong. When we fall too far to one side, we lose access to our full capacity. You may notice times when you're too Yin, drifting, flowing, hesitating, or too Yang, pushing, grasping, striving. Neither is wrong. The skill is learning when to soften and when to engage.

The Daoist text Tao Te Ching, Chapter 2, beautifully reflects this teaching of “the twos.” Light and dark, easy and hard, near and far, each defines and reveals the other. If you're curious about this wisdom, I’ve explored Chapter 2 more deeply in another video in the Jammin’ on the Dao series.

One of the simplest ways to balance Yin and Yang is to begin noticing them within your daily patterns. How do you respond to challenges? Do you lean toward withdrawal (Yin) or over-efforting (Yang)?

Through Qigong movements, breath awareness, and soft attention, we can harmonize these internal forces. The goal isn’t perfection, it’s responsiveness. It’s teaching your body, breath, emotions, and nervous system how to return to center.

We always start with a bow, honoring:

• yourself for showing up,
• the lineage of Qigong teachers before us,
• and everyone practicing around the world.

Feet together, inhale deeply, palms come up, and with your exhale, a gentle bow. This reminds us that every cultivation practice begins with gratitude.

Then we step into High Horse Stance, feet shoulder-width apart, knees soft, spine elongated, shoulders relaxed. This foundational Qigong posture aligns the body and settles the mind.

For thousands of years, Daoist practitioners and classical Chinese medicine observed the crossing nature of the body’s energetic systems:

• The right brain, often associated with creativity and intuitive perception, is more Yin, and connects to the left side of the body.
• The left brain, often linked to logic and structure, is more Yang, and connects to the right side of the body.

So your right hand is naturally more Yang, and your left hand naturally more Yin, but through movement, we can transform them. This is where Qigong becomes a living dialogue with energy.

We lift the palms to shape the Tai Chi Ball, that gentle sphere of energy between the hands. Turning it over, Yin becomes Yang, and Yang becomes Yin. Soft becomes firm. Firm becomes soft.

Nothing is rigid.
Everything responds to awareness.

We sync this with breath:

• Inhale as one hand rises.
• Exhale as the other softens.
• Sometimes the hands expand like an opening horizon.
• Sometimes they draw inward, gathering and consolidating.

This isn’t just exercise.
This is a conversation between the two sides of your being.

Through these gentle movements, you’re teaching your nervous system how to return to balance. Your emotional body learns to respond with grace. Your mind softens its grip on extremes.

As we continue, we explore flowing movements designed specifically to harmonize Yin and Yang, slow rises, gentle weight shifts, soft palm rotations. These awaken the body without overstimulating it.

By the end of a practice like this, most people feel a subtle but undeniable shift, a sense of integration, as if mind, breath, and body finally begin working together again.

This is the essence of Qigong:

Not balance as a concept…
but balance as a lived, embodied experience.

A return to natural harmony, one simple movement at a time.