MINI GUIDE

YIN-FEMINA

Negative, Positive, and Neutral Charge

"Feminine" energy comes from an ancient understanding of Negatively charged aspects of life. Negative does not mean "bad" in this context, negative represents certain parts of life such as night time, and the void from which all creation is birthed.

The atom is made up of negatively charged electrons, positively charged protons, and neutrons (no charge). From this basic building block of all life, we can see how the concepts of feminine, masculine, and neutral energy developed.

The topic of masculine, feminine, and gender neutrality today is understandably, a very charged topic.

In the Western world, and in many other parts of the globe, we're currently swimming in a pool of dysfunctional and unhealthy societal expectations of gender roles, abusive and dominant systems of patriarchal design, feminism, gender fluidity, non-binary, trans, and other alternative expressions of human identities and experiences tied to our concepts of masculine, feminine and non-binary.

Context is everything. How we understand "feminine energy" or qualities changes in relationship to our body, mind, spirit, our culture, conditioning, and experiences.

As humans, we all have hormones that affect our behavior, our personality, our energy.

People who are born male also have estrogen (a female hormone) and people born as female have testosterone (a male hormone). People who are born intersex, that have reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't fit into an exclusively male or female (binary) sex classification have both estrogen and testosterone. And people who change genders also have both.

At a Glance

Below is a simplified snapshot of some of the meanings many cultures have collectively assigned to negative, positive and neutral aspects throughout human history. It is meant to be seen as a simplified overview of our associations, some of them rooted in biological behaviors driven by hormonal influence. The word YIN dates back from the 3rd century BCE or even earlier representing a series of concepts related to the "feminine" in Chinese philosophy, medicine, and culture in general. It is important to understand that in many ancient cultures (and indigenous/tribal cultures that still exist today) negative polarity is simply viewed as the opposite or complimentary polarity. And within each human there exists all three, positive, negative and neutral.

WHAT IS FEMININE ENERGY

HOW CONTEXT SHAPES OUR UNDERSTANDING

In the US and many parts of the world, there is a collective recognition that patriarchal/masculine domination is a BIG problem. There is a critical need to bring more "feminine" energy back into the picture. And we can do this while simultaneously valuing the role of "neutral" energy/non-binary identities and healthy masculinity.

Autoimmune disorders and chronic burn-out from overly valuing"doing"/productivity. The greed of accumulating "territory" literally and metaphorically, at the expense of the community's well-being. The degree to which so many women feel unsafe and are unsafe around the world.

We see things like "slow living" "Divine feminine" and community living are trending on social media, and for good reason.

In a world mostly built for the "masculine", we have witnessed the "feminine" trying to free itself from oppression and abuse to correct this imbalance. And while things like feminism and fighting back against the system might have been necessary to start swinging the pendulum in a more harmonious direction, the survival strategies of becoming more like the "masculine" and/or annihilating the masculine altogether

are proving to be counter productive and destructive.

The process of reclaiming and embodying the qualities of the feminine/negative polarity is understandably confusing. We've been so disconnected from it for so long. And the role of non-binary individuals is just as important. Remember the atom has, negatively charged, positively charged, and neutral elements. Each part is valuable and needed for life itself to work in a healthy way. This is a very brief overview of a complex topic. And a place to help you explore what all this means for you.

HEALTHY FEMININE ENERGY QUALITIES & ASSOCIATIONS

Being present in our bodies.

Developing healthy relationships with our bodies and our wombs can look like healing trauma, somatic therapy, womb work, healing body dysmorphia, and learning how to love our bodies as they are. It can also look like recognizing when we are more centered in our minds. Noticing when we are overly intellectualizing vs feeling our feelings in our bodies.

-Prioritizing

creativity, intuition, sensuality, emotional processing and expression, community + self-care

in whatever ways feel safe and accessible for you at this point in your life. These are qualities that we can learn and strengthen over time.

-Expanding women's rights and our safety

around the world.

-Understanding, honoring, and

celebrating the power and magnificence of womanhood.

Consider Cycle Synching, women's circles, and yoni celebrations.

-Learning how to

love

ourselves, each other, and our world with wisdom

UNHEALTHY ASSOCIATIONS & EMBODIMENT
AND SOCIAL MEDIA RED FLAGS

-Using the words "feminine energy" to put a

strong emphasis on external beauty.

While feeling beautiful and taking care of oneself can be healthy, putting a strong emphasis on being attractive for the male gaze, mistaking our self- worth for our physical beauty, is a form of patriarchal conditioning.

-suppressing anger and other emotions, especially in an attempt to be more "soft" or "submissive". Suppressing our emotions and lashing out at others are both unhealthy. While softness and gentleness can be a part of our healthy feminine expression, rejecting our full spectrum of emotions is not.

-shaming, demeaning, and talking down to other women

We can learn how to express boundaries, concerns, anger, and manage conflict without resorting to these common habits. Competition, gossiping, and manipulation such as passive-aggressive behavior all have roots in patriarchal conditioning.

-promoting the idea that feminine energy is

one specific thing only.

Feminine energy can encompass a wide variety of qualities. Some may even seem contradictory but in actuality, they are about being in different parts of our cyclical nature. One moment we may benefit from tuning into the strength of softness and practice an activity that helps us get in touch with our softer side such as a somatic exercise that involves the sensation of soft textures and reflecting on the aspects of us that feel soft, tender, vulnerable, gentle and sensitive. The next moment we may feel a rush of anger move through our bodies and may want to focus on processing our anger through a somatic exercise that has us use intensity, pressure and constriction.

We are all in different stages of our learning and blooming cycle. Learning includes making mistakes and adjusting as we go.

This is also an invitation to practice being gentle with ourselves and each other on this healing adventure.

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