Learning to cultivate a Yin/Yang Balance
While the concept of Yin/Yang is one I would hear reference to every so often, I have until recently only had a fairly superficial understanding of it. In a very small nutshell - Yin and Yang are the two great opposite but complementary forces at work in the universe. Yin is the intuitive, cold, dark, passive power which is female, and Yang represents masculinity, which is rational, hot, bright and active. Foods, activities, personality-traits, lifestyles and even work environments can all be categorised as Yin or Yang, and just as the symbol for Yin/Yang (below) implies, there is always some Yin in anything that is Yang, and vice versa.
Particularly over the last year or so my awareness of the subtleties of Yin & Yang has been gradually heightened, due mainly to the fact that one of the objectives of a yoga practice is to cultivate a balance of Yin & Yang in one's life. My understanding, however, was more so intellectual, and I had no real experiential insight into the deeper meaning of these terms.
I was inspired to write this article thanks to the experience I had on a week-long yoga retreat with Sue Billington & Peter Askew in Yoga Evolution Retreats, Portugal a couple of weeks ago. Doing a daily Yin practice really opened my eyes to just how important it is for us to somehow integrate some Yin activities and practices into our day-to-day routines, especially given that we are currently living in such a Yang-dominant world. This Yang world is characterised by our constant striving to acquire, consume and always want more - more wealth, more status, more 'success'. The downside of this, unfortunately, is that unless balanced out by the more nurturing, caring and holistic Yin characteristics, all of this striving can be detrimental to our health, our planet, and indeed to the well-being of our species and other forms of life on this earth.
A week spent doing a couple of hours of Yin yoga each evening is obviously a very brief stint, so I am in no way claiming to be an expert on this topic, nor am I naive to the fact that it will take observation over a much longer period of time before I figure out for myself the extent of the benefits of such a practice on an ongoing basis. However, I was so inspired by the changes I felt in such a short period of time, and had such an 'aha' moment on the retreat, that I came away determined to share my experience so that others can also experiment with and benefit from the power of this practice too.
As far as my personality type goes I gravitate more towards the Yang end of the spectrum in that I am results-driven, ambitious, impatient (although improving on this front thanks to my yoga practice!), and am constantly striving towards numerous future objectives.
Just over a year ago I started to realise that my balance had gone a little out of whack. I was constantly mildly exhausted, was often becoming ungrounded when obstacles came my way, and felt like I had somehow lost the spark and creative zeal that has always kept me buzzing along. After a failed business trip to Paris due to an SNCF strike (merci SNCF in retrospect!), I made a visit to a GP in Dublin to finally address issues I had been having with my skin. This incredibly intuitive GP, who seems to me to be as much of a Life Coach as a GP, asked me a few questions about my day-to-day activities, and based on my answers matter-of-factly concluded that I probably had too much testosterone in my system.
As I reflected on his diagnosis I on the one hand felt I should be a little worried, but at the same time knew that it actually made a lot of sense. I wasn't hugely surprised given my Yang-dominant lifestyle. He prescribed a topical treatment and a change of environment. I went along with the topical treatment, didn't make any changes otherwise, and conveniently ignored the root cause.
A few months later on a retreat by The Yoga Salon with Kathy Scott and Mari Kennedy, I was reminded of the doctor's advice when Kathy advised me to keep an eye on the prevalence of Yang activities in my life. She advised I go back to doing some singing or playing music, or take up some more 'Yin' activities to counterbalance my Ashtanga practice and the fact that I was working in sales. With the same fearful attitude I have had towards getting involved in anything musical since an injury put a stop to my violin career ten years ago, I didn't follow through on her perceptive advice, and instead slipped back into my usual routine.
A few weeks ago, nearly a year on, I was looking for a one-week yoga retreat to refresh and hit the reset button before starting into my new role with Social Entrepreneurs Ireland. I came across 'Yoga Evolution Retreats', a retreat-centre in Oleiros, Portugal, which seemed to tick all of the boxes - experienced teachers, delicious vegan food , twice-daily yoga classes and a beautiful new salt-water swimming pool, all in the middle of a forest of pine and eucalyptus. The evening classes were 'Yin Yoga' classes, and having heard many positive reports on Yin Yoga, I was very interested in giving it a try.
The experience was a revelation. On day 1 of the retreat I was wondering if I should do my Ashtanga practice before the 3-hour Vinyasa class at 8am, or at the very least do some type of high-intensity workout to ensure I was working up a sweat on a daily basis. On the first day I did actually do a 30-minute workout pre-yoga class determined not to fall out of a new routine which I trying to stick to. By the end of day 2 however, I was already feeling the benefits of the grounding morning practice and evening Yin practice to such an extent that I decided to do nothing but the scheduled classes and lots of eating, reading and sleeping for the rest of the week- just to see how it would feel. This was prompted partly by the marked improvement I was starting to see in my skin, the quality of the nights' sleep I was getting, and a feeling of rejuvenation that I hadn't felt in a long time.
As the week went on my energy levels continued to increase, and after only a week away I returned home with a whole new lease of life, coupled with a determination to develop an evening Yin practice and start cultivating more Yin activities in my life to keep me grounded. I have lived up to my commitment to myself so far by joining a choir, and doing about 15-20 minutes of Yin postures before bed. I'm starting small!
The main reason I wanted to share this experience is because I feel that many of us are living lives in which we are constantly chasing our tails, striving towards ambitious goals, and all the while feeling overwhelmed and lacking the energy required to deal with the many demands that come our way. In order to realise our full potential we need to remember to cultivate a Yin/Yang balance, and spend time going inwards as well as outwards, and taking time to be still in a very fast-moving world.
For any of you who can relate to some of the warning signs I was experiencing which indicate Yin/Yang imbalance in the too-much-Yang sense, based on my own experience I would recommend the following:
If you are regularly engaging in Yang activities, i.e. results-driven, fast-paced work, or a form of exercise that gets your heart racing - try to balance this out with a more internally focused , grounding practice to help you wind down in the evenings.
Consider taking up an activity like singing, dancing, drawing, cooking etc. which helps you develop your creative side. We tend to move away from activities like this when we 'grow up' and start leading more 'serious' lives.
Limit your caffeine intake. Caffeine suits some people more than others, but many, myself included, stay more grounded and function better without it.
Be mindful of your diet, and of what your are consuming, be that news, your Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram feed, or the TV programmes you watch. Is the information you consume encouraging you to cultivate an attitude of striving, or one of contentment that you are and have enough?
The quote below from John E. Welshon's 'One Soul, One Love, One Heart: The Sacred Path to Healing All Relationships' (pg. 217) very aptly describes the more profound way in which we benefit from cultivating a Yin/Yang balance.
"Ironically, it is difficult to fully see our light until we fully see our darkness"
If we are constantly moving, consuming and allowing ourselves to be drawn outwards, we are most likely denying ourselves the opportunity to discover our full potential by tapping into the intuitive and creative power that lies within.