Rejuvenate with Yin Yang Water!

Yin and Yang water sounds very zen and magical, but the master who told me this idea was actually my mom. Called 음양탕 (Eum-yang-tang) in Korean, Yin Yang water is made with one simple ingredient: water itself. It’s rather quite well-known in oriental medicine; by combining the natures of the positive and the negative, this water perks up your system and stimulates circulation. Drinking lots of water is good for you, right? So I figured, might as well boost its function by turning it into Yin Yang water!

Drinking water is good for you, there is no doubt about that. It keeps your body hydrated, and acts as a mighty skin moisturizer that works from the inside out. Now let’s find out how to turn this beautiful H2O into Yin Yang water.

Boil water in a pot/electric water boiler

Fill up 2/3 of a mug with the boiling water

Fill the rest of the mug with cold water (You can also use room temperature water for a slightly milder effect)

Make sure not to flip the second and third step! Hot water always goes first.

There you have your Yin Yang water!

So let’s get down to the nitty-gritty details about this mysterious water. Hot water goes up. Cold water is heavier than hot water, so it wants to sink to the bottom of the cup. Thus we have a constant circulation within the water – and when we drink it, it creates the very same phenomena within our bodies. This circulation process is helpful for distributing the heat inside our bodies. It keeps our heads cool and clear, while heating up our lower body where all our other organs are. It is an excellent remedy for indigestion, bloating, constipation AND diarrhea (yes, both of them), since the Yin Yang water creates activity within our intestines and makes their work easier. Even if you don’t have any of these symptoms (which is really good!), Yin Yang water is good at any time of the day.

The women in my Asian family always tell me, “Never drink cold water! You need to keep your belly warm!” This old piece of knowledge may sound ridiculous when you’re dying of thirst after a killer workout or a 5-hour hike, but with those exceptions, warm water really is better for you. Its warmth keeps the inside your tummy very active, whereas cold water keeps it in a stagnant state. Warm water is therefore better at breaking down the fat inside your intestines, which is a great plus when it comes to weight loss and losing that muffintop around your belly. And for girls, a warm tummy means stronger female organs and a healthier cycle.

As you can see from the instructions, this water is super easy to fix up. It’s best to drink at the spot while the hot-cold circulation is the most active. If you naturally have a lot of heat in your body (need to stick those feet out of the covers when you sleep? enjoying the air conditioning too much? You probably have a lot of heat in your system), change up the hot-cold water proportions so that you fill up about 1/3 of the cup with boiling water and fill the rest with cold water. If you have a cold body like me (are your hands and feet always cold? Can’t live without gloves in the winter?), you need more heat in your system. Slightly increase the amount of hot water.

If you get bored with just drinking water or perhaps you’re a tea person, no worries! You can apply this concept to almost any kind of tea – I mostly use either green or pu-erh tea – by pouring cold water into a cup of hot tea.  To boost the weight loss effect, try Yin Yang ginger tea, and for those lucky few who are naturally skinny, try Yin Yang yuzu or fruit tea.

 Rejuvenating your body with this trick is both easy and beneficial; and as a frequent Yin Yang water drinker, I can testify that it really does help a lot with getting rid of bloatiness and resetting your digestive system when it runs into any kind of trouble. Plus, it makes water drinking fun! You guys all need to try this now!

Like literally right now. It’ll take less than a minute!!