I truly believe that a yoga practice should not be a one-sided information transaction. A teacher standing there in front of students, transferring sequences and famous quotes while students respond quietly to what they were told to do. A yoga practice should be a conversation, an exchange, a dance between a teacher and a student, conscious and subconscious, head and heart.
I always have a lesson planned ahead of time before meeting my students but a conversation, a check-in time, as I call it, has a significant weight on where the class is going. We have tea first, then get started. The following conversation came out of such classes.
In one morning class, my student explained to me that she had spent years trying to cultivate the feminine power inside of her, trying to move away from the masculine because the world is already masculine and it caused her grief, anxiety and a general feeling of failure and disappointment coupled with constant fatigue from striving.
I couldn’t agree more. This world is filled with masculine quality: strive, not relax, search, not observe, do, not be, more, not less, speak, not sit back and listen. In almost every human society in history, the feminine quality has eventually been buried, squashed and ignored. But that’s not just now. Women have been degraded and devalued for centuries along with the concept of the feminine quality.
Trusting the feminine divine or feminine quality in this world is a brave and courageous act.
What is Feminine Energy?
Feminine quality is often symbolized as the moon. Rather than shining brightly even in the light with big expansive hot ray, the moon gently sheds light in the dark. Feminine quality is also represented in water. Rather than fire devouring everything in its way, water envelopes, it shifts and changes, making it hard to grasp. Water responds, fire spreads.
But the full moon can also keep animals awake, or hide behind clouds making everything dark. Water can swallow everything whole and over time, it can change a shape of a stone.
Feminine quality is soft, receptive and relaxed. Feminine power responds, not react. The divine feminine does not need to “know”. The feminine divine reminds you that you have a value beyond what you produce.
The feminine energy reminds you that your existence alone is more than enough.
What Does This Mean In a Modern World?
Modern societies that we live in are dualistic, or tends to be binary. You’re either with me or against me. We must strive to accomplish more. We must be adaptable and rigid at the same time. Clarity over fluidity. Production and accomplishments over connection and contemplation.
The result is that we are overtired, overstimulated, and overanxious.
In a modern society, feminine qualities can look like unproductive, unclear, and out of place.
So for those of us who have more sensitivities to feeling our feminine qualities within us force ourselves to fit into the mold of a masculine world and feel utterly out of place, oversensitive, and exhausted. Some of us learn to fit in, suppress our true voices to just to survive, while feeling stretched and distorted somehow. Like something is wrong…
So Which Is Better, Masculine or Feminine?
While masculine quality seems like a bad influence in our lives, it is also the power to get things done, find solutions and move on. It’s also our power to stand on our two feet firmly so we are not stepped on like a doormat. It’s our strength, clarity, willingness for change for the better.
In Vedic tradition, masculine quality is described as the Sun. Just as the living beings cannot live and grow without the sun, we need the sun or the masculine energy. The trouble is if our scale tip to one side only, overemphasizing one quality, it goes out of balance. So we can say that the whole world is out of balance. But also within us, the balance is necessary whether you have a natural tendency for one of the energies, or the other.
And How Does It Relate To Yoga Practice?
Knowing that the vast majority of our lifestyle is designed in masculine orientation, there is an undeniable need for feminine quality to be practiced and emphasized. That’s where yogic teachings come in. Yoga, in and of itself, is the study of balance.
While our mind goes directly to the question, “so how do we DO it?”, this very question itself is very masculine oriented. We are bombarded How-Tos and not given a chance to process, using feminine quality, what was communicated. What I usually tell my clients is to have a speed bump before you move into action. Whatever you learn or hear, pause and give yourself time to reflect and process. Then let the clarity flow up to the surface to move into actions.
If I were to explain how to practice bringing in more feminine quality into your practice, I would say to let this thought mull over in your heart for a few days. Instead of figuring out HOW TO do this thing we learned, perhaps the best thing is to allow your feminine divine to let things resurface and only then, you may know what to do.
After all, this IS the practice of trusting the feminine divine within. Trust that you already have the answer. You only need to listen.