The Yin and Yang of Creativity
I first came to the concept of feminine and masculine energy through teaching yoga, especially yin yoga, which draws from the Chinese tradition of yin and yang. In this tradition, yin is the female expression of energy while yang is masculine.
Each person has both yin and yang energy, regardless of gender, and each person expresses and balances these energies differently. Some people and cultures and even seasons have more masculine energy, some more feminine. (Summer is masculine, while winter is feminine.)
Feminine energy tends to be more introverted. Even in extroverts, yin turns in. Feminine energy is intuitive and introspective and characterized by a sense of being. Feminine energy is about feeling and perceiving and relies particularly heavily upon body knowledge.
Masculine energy is more extroverted, even in introverts. Yang energy focuses on output, expression, and productivity. Masculine energy is cerebral, logical and rational.
Wait, am I saying women are naturally more emotional and men more rational? Nope. Remember, this is about energy not biological sex or gender. But also, note the hidden bias here in the question — that logic (masculine) is superior to emotion (feminine). We’ll get to that later. For now, I’d like to focus on the practicalities of how these two energies support our creativity.
Because creativity is a feminine energy.
That’s right. Creativity requires incubation, nurturing, and birthing, all feminine energies. So if you want more creativity, you need more feminine energy. How do you do that? Balancing out all of the masculine energy that likely consumes much of your energy with more of the feminine.
If you’ve downloaded my printable energy checklist already, you may recognize this list: nature, rest, play, beauty, solitude, being. These are actually feminine-energy-producing elements. Get more of these in your life and you will feel more grounded, better balanced, and more creative.
Masculine energy is a giving energy, so when you are participating in masculine-energy activities like promoting, selling, producing, marketing, and querying, you are likely burning up and giving out a lot of your energy. When you balance that exertion by turning in and tuning in with feminine-energy elements and activities, you are receiving universal yin energy, creativity’s lifeblood.
We all need both masculine and feminine energy. For many of us, the creative cycle is only complete once we’ve sent our product out into the world. We’ll never be in perfect balance, but we become truly powerful creatives when we can accept both our yang and yin traits and energies fully and learn to harness both.
Pay attention this week to whether you lean more masculine or feminine. Do you have a bias toward one or the other? How can you learn to honor both in yourself? If you’re in a more masculine energy phase of the creative cycle, can you bring in some feminine elements to avoid burnout? If you’ve been in the feminine creation-hibernation phase for a while, is it time to harness your masculine energy and step outside your comfort zone?
Once you start to see yourself and your creativity through this lens, you’ll be better able to maintain enough energy to live a more joyful, more creative life. Happy creating!
