Personal growth is really all about balancing the energies within oneself. Whether you are male or female your energies can get out of balance. Masculine energies tend to be those that we also call left brain (logic and practical based, no nonsense, controlling, verbal), while feminine energies are more right brain (empathetic, soft, visual and feeling based). However, as we evolve as females, we get more in touch with the masculine aspects of ourselves, and evolving males get more in touch with their feminine selves.
If we are take-charge females, we can at times get our more feminine side out of whack. We can forget how to soften, loosen up and flow, and of course the opposite is true for males. I have a story to tell that illustrates this in such a wonderful way: My student, Susan, has been working on a very large oil painting of a landscape with a bright area of sunshine cutting through its midst. As she worked on the left side of the painting {her right side) the painting just flowed and came together easily. But when she worked on the right side (her left) the painting was stiff, flat, and she kept losing the needed contrast. It just didn’t work with the other side. I kept pointing this out week after week, but she kept struggling.
Finally, I said, “Susan, what is it with this painting? It seems to me you are having trouble connecting with your feminine (left) side. Have you lost touch with your feminine energy?“ The entire class got in on this, and we had some fun with it.
“I have an idea,” I said, going to a storage area and pulling out a wonderful frilly apron. “Girl, put this on. We have to get you connected with your feminine energy!” Susan put the apron over her head, tied it at her waist, and began to paint. What a difference! Did I expect such a dramatic release of her feminine by simply donning that frilly apron? Not really. But it worked. In Susan’s words, “It was magic!”
Of course, the natural flow of things is to slowly lean to the left, then to the right, then left….Sound familiar? Hopefully then back and fort is mild enough that it sort of averages out to balance. Yes, this is also true in politics and even in religion. When we become rigid, fearful of change, unbending in our rhetoric, we are moving too far to the right. When we become too compliant, too soft, and emotionally declare our stand we are moving to far to the left. Somewhere in between is that balance that allows us to see both sides of a situation, take into account the needs of others as well as our own, and open to communicate in both directions.
Gee, it just hit me. Perhaps what our present political situation needs are a few frilly aprons. If only it could be so simple!
