Yin and Yang of Wellness

I once had a yoga instructor who taught about the yin and the yang of yoga, or the push and surrender, as she called it. The push is when you give everything you've got, holding a pose just a little longer than you have before, pushing to a new level of discomfort. You push, you stretch, you go further than you thought you could. And then, when you really can't go any further, you surrender. You honor your limit. You pull back from the pose. You give your muscles the break it was begging for and you rest. 

I believe the push and the surrender create a balancing tension where you cultivate your best self, where you explore the edges of your potential without extinguishing your inner flame. This place of growth and learning, tempered by an abundance of self compassion and care, is the space where I like to practice wellness. 

I love to push myself, to stretch, to accomplish new things. I love pushing myself in a workout to see just how hard I can go. I love setting goals and accomplishing them. I love challenges & work. I love learning & growth. Sometimes I get so enamored by the yin that it overbalances my yang. Maybe some of you really love the yang. Maybe the task feels so overwhelming. Maybe the pain and the discomfort of growth just doesn’t feel worth the outcomes. Maybe you’re just too darn comfortable. Whichever is your lean, we’ve all found ourselves on both sides, undoubtedly, just a little out of balance. 

My goal in this writing is to help us all find the right tension between these two. It will vary for all of us, and for each of us it will vary from time to time. My goal isn’t to find perfection, but to find balance. To share ideas on both sides. Ideas for strength and ideas for rest and emotional self care.