#thIMPULSE - EDITION 03.2020 - Leap Year – A Story about Culture
Yin and yang part ll.
Having explored the notion of chaos and order (in EDITION 02.2020 - http://bit.ly/3a2A4NC), which is an extremely valuable (but very hard and sometimes painful) one, there is a second offspring I got to know only quite recently:
Meet Ms. Yin!
I am Happy that Ms. Yin came into my life, although she is a tough cookie for me…
I had known only Mr. Yang so far:
- intense football in my youth.
- partying and traveling especially during my student times.
- ambition fueled career building.
- creating, moving and supporting an international family.
- up-and-down shifting, changing and joggling with ideas such as creating a company, or not, mixed with the drive for independence and freedom, infused with the wish to find joy, passion and purpose.
Most of these things were not in chronological order, but rather overlapping. And if you would have asked me, ideally: everything at the same time!
Mr. Yang on my right shoulder is nodding happily, like an approving father: Well done son! Go on!
With this behavior, Mr. Yang is representing the society or culture we are living in. People expect to have intense, heavily charged and busy agendas of DOING stuff.
Always on, always reachable, always in action.
As we have a right shoulder we also have a left shoulder.
In times of change, you try to explore all options. So I got to look on my left shoulder more and more recently. And what do I find sitting there:
- Somebody who usually keeps silent, or better, is heavily overpowered by the right side.
- Somebody who is quite, patient and resilient.
- Somebody who has all the time in the world to wait, see and observe.
- Somebody who knows that one day we will notice her.
- Somebody who is not so appealing during the eyes of society. Her voice has only been magnified in recent years.
- Somebody who gets definitely noticed when health starts to decline, accidents or burn-out happen and suffering commences.
- Somebody when these things happen, we wish that we would have had a closer look earlier. So did I!
- I think mindfulness and attentiveness help to have a look at her earlier.
When actually looking closer at her, we will see that she is beautiful and she can really take care of us:
- She is genuinely interested in us, our mind, body and soul.
- When we cherish her, her being and her mission, far more is given back.
- She can be in perfect harmony with Mr. Yang, if we are able to give her enough space, time and patience (and keep Mr. Yang at bay).
The formula seams very simple:
- I say more often no, hold on or relax to Mr. Yang (especially for the things I do not really want but are imposed on me by society, the look of others, friends,…).
- I say more often yes to Ms. Yin (especially when things get tough, challenging and stressful) by sitting still, breathing and just doing NOTHING for a moment.
- What I realized, the more I listen to Ms. Yin (which is very difficult still now), the more effective I am when executing what Mr. Yang wants.
- So overall WIN-WIN, it is actually a free-lunch….Ah, it could be, but it is so tempting for me to ignore, neglect or just overhear Ms. Yin's silent whispers.
So here the note to myself:
1) There is Ms. Yin.
2) Ms. Yin is actually attractive.
3) When catering for Ms. Yin, Mr. Yang is even more happy with me…
But I have to start listening and leaning in to her….and that’s the hard part especially in the ACTION culture we are living in.
You want more...
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- my email: fh@florianhoefling.com
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