06/25/2025
This morning we caught the new "I've Got Your Back" segment on WTIP with Dr. Steph Vos! The subject today was the necessity of "Rest". Every moment of the mini-episode rang true and reminded me of many conversations in my acupuncture clinic. It's so hard in today's world to find time for rest and rejuvenation. And when we feel our fatigue there are always endless low-effort opportunities for overstimulation (looking at you, phones!)
As Dr. Steph pointed out finding rest is even harder during our fleeting northern summer where everything has to get done, all the projects AND all the fun. How can we rest enough with 16 hours between sunrise and sunset?!
Personally I find solace and guidance in the Taiji (yin/yang) and the Fire trigram from the Book of Changes. Both of these symbols are millennia old and carry a similar message of process and balance. As we approach the most Yang time of the year, the height of Summer, cool Yin is already budding. We can see this in the slowly increasing length of nighttime that just started. Yin (rest/coolness/dark) is always present in Yang (activity/heat/light) and the need for it grows as Yang exhausts itself. The same will be true as Yin reaches its maximum. These seeds of opposites are the "eyes" of the Taiji symbol.
The Fire Trigram shows something similar. Inside the two outer lines is the inner Yin line. Fire always needs grounding and attachment to substance. Summer is the season of Fire, the hottest and most active phase, but still needs a balance of Yin. In the case of this Trigram it is 1/3 Yin, just like we have 1/3 nighttime around the Summer Solstice.
So rest up, take time for yourself to relax, and drink enough water.
As Dr. Steph so eloquently put it, "If you wear yourself out your body is going to make you rest one way or another. Why not make space to decide the timing for yourself?"
