Do you need a nurturing hand to help you step away from the productive masculine/yang ‘ticking-things-obsessively-off-lists’ mode?
Me! I do! I do!
It is my natural tendency to have my task list in one hand and a spear in the other, as I navigate my way – eagle eyed – through each day, executing one task after the other. And the more precise and efficient and skilled my execution, the more I grow like bamboo (I-like-to-grow-all-the- time)…
I don’t watch TV so this yang energy doesn’t stop in the evenings. I am usually deeply engrossed in one of my projects: whether it’s working as a lawyer, renovating my tiny sacred cottage in Dorset (aka endless creative possibilities), walking my out-of-control dog, creating a new offering for my yoga business, cooking, paying bills, driving from A to B, responding to emails, designing my next piece of art, seeing friends and family… Non-stop. Every day.
There are a handful of scrumptious (yin) exceptions:
· Paws: Basically anything with fur melts me immediately into soft yin putty. I take mini yin breaks whenever my animals reach their paws out to me to demand snuggles.
· Bathing: For me, when the tap turns on, the sacred ritual begins. Mother nature’s essential oils come out to play, meditation begins, the fire element is honoured through candles, and my deep feminine waters within are cocooned in the yin element of water. Sometimes I do a bath ritual with a sacred rose bud, opening each petal one by one and placing them on my body, which is utterly divine if you have never tried it.
· Retreats: A retreat is permission to ‘vacate’ your ordinary consciousness and slip into the mystical part of your nature so that you can ask soul-sized questions that reveal not answers to you, but truth. That is why I am devoted to regularly attending and hosting retreats. We all need help to take ourselves away from everyday living, where we tend to equate productivity to success and self-worth (a product of the patriarchy obviously). I believe retreats are deep dives – essential for reconnecting to the sacredness within and all around – and that we should perceive retreats as essential to our spiritual and mystical well-being.
So my friends, I won’t be offering you my animals (my precious), and I won’t be suggested you jump into my bubble bath, but if you need a helping (yin) hand, may I invite you to take a look at my upcoming retreat weekends and retreat days...?
I actually believe that we ALL need (yin) help. And for those of you that think you don’t need (yin) help, I suspect you probably need it the most…
Love (like the kind of love that fills up your body and spills over making a mess all over the floor)
Sherin xxx
