Beyond the general rule
Building on the basic idea of yin and yang, Richard's acupuncture background adds another layer: alongside your general state of overstimulation or stagnation, your underlying constitution, in Chinese medicine terms your elemental type, shapes which style of practice genuinely serves you.
The five constitutions
- Wood (Liver/Gall Bladder) — assertive, structured, sometimes rigid — tends to suit stronger, more sinewy practices like Ashtanga or Vinyasa
- Fire (Heart/Small Intestine) — warm, passionate, relational — is often drawn to heart-centred, flowing practice like Dru Yoga
- Water (Kidney/Bladder) — introspective, reflective — usually does best with slower, more restorative or yin practice
- Metal (Lung/Large Intestine) — values clarity and space — often benefits from strongly breath-led practice such as Kundalini
- Earth (Stomach/Spleen) — stable, grounded, comfort-seeking — tends to enjoy a moderate, steadily engaging practice like Hatha
The counter-intuitive trap
One pattern shows up again and again: people who are genuinely depleted often push themselves into harder, more demanding practice, convinced that exhausting themselves further will finally let them switch off. It rarely does, the actual fix is usually the opposite, a slower practice that resources rest rather than burning through what little energy remains. It can feel confronting precisely because it asks you to sit with restlessness rather than outrun it.
Body and mind have their own yin and yang
There's a further layer worth knowing: relative to each other, the body is yin and the mind is yang. Someone who's too caught up in their head on the mat will often override what their body is actually telling them, chasing what a pose is supposed to look like, a habit that tends to show up off the mat too. The goal, in either direction, is balance: enough structure to keep growing, enough rest to actually integrate it. As Herbert Benson's research on the relaxation response suggests, even twenty minutes of proper deep rest can do the work of several hours of sleep.
