How to Employ Yin-Yang in a Life

Yin and Yang exists in all things. Within each side of the yin-yang symbol are found two dots. They represent the yin core found within the larger yang swirl and a yang core found within a yin swirl. For any object to be balanced, there must be a balance of yin and yang forces within and without. The principles of yin and yang are fluid. Meaning, yin actions should generate and flow into yang ones; meaning that degrees of yin exist within yang and yang within yin. The forces operate together, complementing each other. Employ these yin and yang principles to achieve balance in life.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Too Much Yang in Your Actions?

1. Cultivate your yin. Consider your instinctive, gut reaction and evaluate it. Is it always harsh or hard? Does anger flare easily? If so, your reactions are dominated by yang. The yang father is one who is always too stern with his children, who doesn't know when to allow them to fail.

2. Soften your instinctive reaction. Take it down a notch. Allow yourself to be more flexible, more open to an alternative. Weigh your anger against a scale as to how important the issue really is. Without a yin core, when it becomes necessary to be flexible, the yang simply breaks.

3. Add patience before an action. Consider the yang tree verses the yin. In an ice storm, the yang tree cannot bear the weight of the ice and breaks, while the yin tree simply bends down, waiting for spring thaw. Yin waits, allowing for a cooling-down period. Try counting to ten, then reevaluate the situation.

Too Much Yin in Your Actions?

4. Cultivate your yang. Consider your behavior, your first response to a stimulus. Do you give in easily? Do others' opinions constantly sway your judgment? Is it hard or impossible to say "no"? If so, you are dominated by yin forces. The yin mother lacks the backbone to put her foot down. She allows her children to rule and lacks the strength to properly discipline them.

5. Learn to say "no." But pick your battles. Weigh the issue logically. Remove emotion from the equation and decide what is right. Then stick to your decision. Make rational arguments.

6. Be unbiased. Know your own biases, for good or ill, and reconsider the situation (or your actions) without the bias. How would your reaction change if the bias were not there? Yang seeks fairness.

Keeping the Balance

7. Evaluate any situation from both a logical and emotional standpoint, as both views have their place. The logical will usually provide you with the yang stand while the emotional provides a yin. Remember that one cannot be in balance without the other.

8. Choose an affirmative action based on what yang logic tells you, but soften it with yin's emotional point of view. A balanced action has both yin and yang aspects.

9. Begin by viewing things in black and white terms, to simplify. Then take note of the gray, realizing that absolute values of black and white rarely exist. Look for aspects of both qualities in all things. A shadow is "yin" compared to a patch of sunlight. However, the same shadow exhibits qualities of yang when compared to night. Therefore, the shadow is "mostly yin."

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