The ‘Do-Be’ Dance
To do or to be, that is a real question these days…
These active and passive aspects of ourselves are two sides to the Yin Yang dancing coin of exploring balance.
Doing expands, expresses and uses up vital life force.
Being returns us to replenishment, quietude and calm.
Without being, there is little resource for doing.
And yet the existence of both is essential for wellbeing.
Our bodily systems are wise, there is a gut instinct at play linked directly to metabolic nuances. Our autonomic nervous system helps us to maintain a steady balance between fast action and calming rest, providing an equilibrium of health resonating in each cell. If we can listen to what is required, rather than assuming our mind knows best, then we open up to a deeper relationship of self care and an honouring of this miraculous body/mind/spirit set up. We step into the ‘Do-Be’ dance, a dance of complementary opposites. Here is the Yin Yang principle at play.
Our cells are alternately discharging waste products and receiving nutrients to enable their cellular business to occur. Indeed it feels more gracious to acknowledge this as a dance rather than a strict choice of this, that or the other.
‘Being’ is essentially Yin in nature. Like water, which flows and returns to a place of holding, it can, when left to its own devices, find the lowest point to settle. It needs a spark of fire to prevent stagnation or drowning.
‘Doing’ is essentially Yang in nature. Like fire, it expands and expresses with action, which can burn out if unchecked. Doing needs a dose of being to assist in the balancing of its fire.
There are a myriad of illustrations of the Yin Yang dance through nature, in and within the seasons.
Like the breath – we cannot breathe out unless we’ve breathed in.
We cannot wake up, if we’ve not been to sleep. The night gives rise to the morning, as the day gives to night.
Yin is not just dark, female and shadowy, just as Yang is not just white, masculine and sunny.
Within each there is an aspect of the other to encourage the ‘Do-Be’ dance to continue to nurture life.
It’s not just a balancing of opposites, it’s a balancing of being. Like the Earth and the Sun being at a sweet-spot distance that enables life on earth to proliferate. Or the forces of gravity and electromagnetism that need to be at a particular degree, neither stronger or weaker, for matter to cohere.
In contemporary society, Yang has had the upper hand for way too long. Consequently, we’re in an epidemic of low self care, sickness and disease, despite all the advances in modern day science.
How can we be more Yin and hold space for ourselves to heal?
We are, after all, human be-ings.
Why do we need to balance ‘doing’ with ‘being’?
- our systems work better when in the steadiness of balance, to prevent dis-ease and heal outstanding disorders
- honouring the innate balance at the core of our existence allows us to be more measured with decisions
- fostering a relationship with the eternal now moment, we become more present with life, a key to unlimited energy
- Doing the ‘do’ without being the ‘be’ leads to ungrounded, over stimulated behaviour, eroding true health
Taoist meditation/affirmation
Using the power of the I AM BALANCE statement, activated by the breath, along with placing your hands on your lower belly at the level of the sacral chakra. Say the following to yourself, three times.
- Breathe in ‘I’
- Hold for ‘AM’
- Breathe out ‘Balance’
Notice how this centres you in the middle of your ‘Do-Be’ dance. This balance place in your belly is the ‘dantien elixir field’. This is your zone of potential, a centre of resource to access your complementary ingredients to a balanced life, where Yin and Yang interplay in harmony. Drop in here whenever you feel out of sorts and reconnect to the ‘I Am Balance’ within.