The balance within — Yin, Yang, and the summer oils that keep you well

The garden I keep in bottles

I would love my humble garden to bloom wildly in summer. Roses, lavender, marigold, jasmine, geranium, chamomile — all my favourites. The little problem is the insects. My daughter was stung by bees not once but three times on different occasions, each time causing a severe allergic reaction. Since then, we have not kept flowering plants. The Rose of Sharon is rooted in the garden, and it will always be the housekeeper.

These plants do not only have beautiful flowers. They each carry a unique scent and their own healing properties. Their essence is kept in amber bottles in my bedroom, so I can reach for them as if I were picking them fresh from the garden. I use them for the scent, for health maintenance, and for self-healing.

Two therapies, one philosophy

I am fascinated by the commonality of TCM and aromatherapy. Two natural therapies — one from the East, one from the West — arrive at the same intersection: treating the whole person rather than the symptom. Neither tradition seeks to eliminate a virus directly. Both work to strengthen the body and the mind-spirit so that they can fight together, becoming more resilient each time they do. Through the process of self-healing, the foundation consolidates. It is like a child who will never forget a word after correcting the spelling mistake herself. The lesson stays because the body learned it from the inside.

Aromatherapy explains how the body is physiologically and emotionally sedated or stimulated by essential oils. A citrus oil such as bergamot or grapefruit stimulates the body systems, strengthens circulation, and uplifts the emotions. A plant from the Lamiaceae family — true lavender or clary sage — calms the mind, promotes relaxation, and invites the body to rest.

TCM describes the same phenomenon through different language. Nature contains two opposing forces: Yin and Yang. Anything with a sedative, inward-flowing, cooling, still quality is Yin. Anything stimulating, outward-flowing, warming, and expanding is Yang. Different names, the same wisdom. This is where East and West meet.

The balance that keeps everything moving – 陰陽

In TCM, health is not the absence of illness. It is the dynamic balance between Yin (陰) and Yang (陽) within the body — two forces in constant movement, each containing the seed of the other. The ancient Chinese pictured this as the Tai-ji sign (太極): two fish cradling each other in an eternal circle, ever moving, neither one dominant for long. It has no physical form, but its imbalance shows clearly in the body as restlessness, fatigue, overheating, or the flatness that comes when nothing feels quite right.

Aromatherapy reaches the same understanding through the body's response to scent. When stress or emotional imbalance underlies a physical symptom, the symptom eases when the inner state is restored. This is why diffusing a room, taking an aromatic bath, or receiving an aromatherapy massage can be simultaneously relaxing, relieving, and genuinely restorative. The oil does not cure the symptom. It restores the conditions in which the body cures itself.

Both traditions aim for the same thing: balance and harmony within the body, the mind, and the spirit.

Finding your balance in summer

Because Yin-Yang is not visible, the practice begins with attention. Feel your body as you step into summer. The heat, the humidity, the vigorous energy surrounding you will subtly shift your mood, your appetite, your skin, and everything happening beneath the surface.

If you tend toward introversion and find yourself retreating indoors, you may need more Yang — oils that move energy upward and outward, that open rather than close. If the long days and social energy leave you overstimulated, your mind unsettled by evening, you will need more Yin — oils that cool, settle, and restore.

The goal is not to eliminate one force in favour of the other. The goal is to keep them moving together, as the two fish do. Neither one dominant for long.

Three ways to use summer's oils

Nature does not promise ease. But in the same season, in the same garden, it provides exactly what the body needs to respond. The remedy and the condition arrive together — as honey soothes the inflammation of a bee sting, the summer flowers blooming now carry the Yin energy the season's heat demands. The flowers are not incidental to summer. They are summer's answer to its own demands.

The heat and the long summer days can disturb sleep. Rose, lavender, jasmine, and chamomile each carry Yin energy — calming the mind, settling the body, easing the restlessness that builds through a hot evening. Diffuse four drops of any one of them in the hour before bed. Let the room change before you enter it.

Chamomile works beyond the diffuser. A warm cup of chamomile tea after dinner supports digestion and helps the body transition from the activity of the day toward the stillness of the night. Simple, reliable, and available in every supermarket.

Geranium balances. Where the other summer oils lean toward Yin, geranium holds the centre — regulating excess oil on the skin, calming an over-activated mind, and supporting hormonal equilibrium. In TCM terms, it moves between elements with unusual ease, which is why aromatherapists reach for it when the picture is mixed and no single direction is clear. Dilute two drops of geranium and two drops of any oil you are drawn to in a tablespoon of milk, honey, or body wash, then pour into a warm bath. Soak for fifteen minutes. Let the balance find you.

A note on safety

Do not use chamomile, rose, geranium, or jasmine in the first trimester of pregnancy, as they may influence hormonal balance.

Do not apply any essential oil undiluted directly to the skin.

What nature prepares

We are not promised an easy path. But what we need to heal, to regain our strength, to keep moving forward, is prepared by nature before we even think to ask for it. The flowers blooming now are not decoration. They are the season's provision.

The amber bottles in my bedroom do not only give me joy and relaxation. They give me the harmony within the body, and keep the ever-changing Yin-Yang balance — most of the time.