Chinese medicine often promotes the idea of balance but what does this really mean?? To start with, there is a natural flux of movement that takes place with all of life. There are moments of rest, and times of activity. There are cycles in life that contract, asking us to go inward and there are cycles that expand, calling us to be more active in the world. All periods are equally valuable.
Decades of your life are separated into either yin or yang decades and each individual year has a particular influence for you and your life. The theme of Yang decades is on action, career, and overall movement. More of the learning that takes place is out in the world. In contrast, Yin decades are a time when you are asked to move inward. It’s a time to do more self analysis, meditation, and inner work. Certain years are suppose to be filled with challenge, hard work, and building while others are more for relaxing, taking a break, and indulging.
The course of expansion and contraction that takes place over the course of one’s life is considered to be a natural flow. All cycles hold tremendous promise for growth and self-discovery, just in different ways. Having awareness about whether or not you are in a yin or yang decade can help you to feel more confident and therefore more likely to ease into going with the flow. Knowing the theme of the year can actually help you to stay in better balance. You might not resist the hard work of building a business if you knew that you were in a year set up to support you for precisely that! Or you might relax easier into a year if you had the understanding that it was a year of “being” instead of doing. The idea is to be able to move gracefully through each time period, honoring the influence of the particular year and/or decade without resistance.