Yin and Yang of Self-awareness

Symbol of Yin and Yang

Yin and Yang are two sides of the same coin

Together, Yin and Yang create a “whole.” For example, a complete calendar “day” is actually 24 hours, which is made of daytime and nighttime. Our “day” would not be complete without the night and vice versa. The combination of day and night creates one whole calendar day.

Yin and Yang are fundamental to Chinese medicine.

All aspects of the mind and body are understood within the framework of Yin and Yang. Nothing is all Yin or all Yang. Everything is a combination of the two – everything and everyone. You and I are both combinations of Yin and Yang. The variety in human beings gives a clue about varied expressions of Yin and Yang.

Self-awareness and Yin and Yang

Regardless of how we may express Yin and Yang, the idea is that we each have the full potential of these fundamental forces within us. What amount of Yin and Yang do you express?
Are you more apt to express the “daytime” or the “nighttime” potential within you? Consider a 24 hour cycle of a full calendar day. Sunrise, sunset, midnight, and midday. All of these moments reflect the dance and flow of Yin and Yang as they shift in relationship to give us a whole day. Are you expressing “all 24 hours” of you? 

24 hours of you

Each of has within us sunrise and sunset, day and night, light and dark, Yin and Yang. Depending on our culture, we learn that differing amounts and expression of Yin and Yang are “acceptable,” “appropriate,” “good,” “bad,” etc. From this cultural conditioning, we learn to hold back a little of this, and offer a little more of that.

Sometimes we find ourselves feeling stifled, stuck, not enough, too much, unfit, strange, weird, missing something, etc. From the perspective of the whole potential of Yin and Yang, nothing is better or worse than anything else – it is all just one aspect of the same whole. For instance, sunset balances sunrise and both are inevitable. We may have a preference for one or the other, and one or the other may be more “socially acceptable,” but still, both Yin and Yang exist to balance the whole.

Although we may not be expressing the full potential of Yin and Yang, these fundamental forces are within each of us. Observe yourself and wonder about the full potential of the whole of you, the 24 hours of you. As a simple practice, observing preferences and tendencies toward Yin and Yang may reveal an inner resource of possibility and potential.

Click here to learn about Yin & Yang.