The yin in a masculine world

On Saturday I led my last live course before the summer break and once again it was a very nice day and an interesting exchange between women. Thanks to the participants (unfortunately not all of them made it into the photo) and to Bacopa for the pleasant atmosphere and the beautiful ambience.

Towards the end of the course, the topic came up of how often the ‘chi instead of Botox’ methods should be used and how quickly you see results. The answer is: to achieve good results within two weeks, you only need 10 minutes a day. That’s putting it very conservatively, because it actually works much faster than that.

The yang has its say

Most women are happy with this calculation, it's basically a great thing - small effort, big effect. Every now and then, however, there is a sigh: "I already do sport, now this too, how long will it take me?" Well, and so in a women's seminar we are very quick to use terms that have a masculine, yang quality: "how long, how often, how fast". Instead of seeing it as an opportunity to get closer to ourselves, to create a space in which we can feel ourselves, we women of today quickly see another task on the to-do list. How did it get this far? This question is not directed at the participant asking, but at all of us.

Performance instead of desire

How did it come to this, that we unlearn our yin qualities and often consider them unimportant? Since when has the cultivation of femininity become a chore and not a pleasurable privilege? When did doing become so much more important than being? Doing so much more important than enjoying? Everyone is in search of "what they are", but no one wants to take the time to be anymore. We embark on the spiritual path to get closer to ourselves and also approach it with this yang attitude: I still have to read the book, attend the seminar, I still have to watch this, I still have to walk the Camino de Santiago. Yes, all of this is important, but in between - be. Accept what happens. Enjoy the small pleasures. Have space to feel yourself. And so, whilst we are doing, searching and walking, we are distracted from what we are seeking – ourselves. The self craves being, feeling, acceptance and compassion. We want to „be someone“, but we are too preoccupied with defining the word „someone“ and, in doing so, forget about „being“. Chi instead of Botox is a task when viewed with Yang, and a space when viewed with Yin. Bringing these two into balance invites us to allow our Yin qualities to become stronger again.

What is to become of our femininity if we regard the time a woman needs for her care only as a task and a performance? Is it not the essence of femininity to create spaces, to enable closeness, to allow encounters?

Yang first and "eventually" Yin?

Don't think you have enough time to meet yourself when you're done with everything, because we both know - you're never done. If you don't give these 10 minutes to yourself, they will be filled with duties that don't carry any weight. You certainly won't say in the evening: "I got something important done in those 10 minutes." But if you have given yourself this space, you might well say in the evening: "At least I had those 10 minutes to myself. At least I was with myself for 10 minutes."

Chi instead of Botox is not a task, it is a space. A space for meeting your femininity, a space for feeling, for smiling at your reflection. Chi instead of Botox is 10 minutes in which you can say good morning to yourself, 10 minutes of loving attention for yourself. It is a time in which you shed the intimacy of the night in order to transform into your daytime self. The method allows you to lovingly approach your body and transform into the most beautiful and comfortable daytime self you can be that day.

With this in mind, I wish you a lovely and cosy summer!