By Charlotte Keane
Shamanic Priestess
Chief Ceremonial Yogi
We have arrived at a moment in time where it is going to get uncomfortable. As the days progress, I am becoming more and more aware of the anxiety that is moving through me. Even when I shut off the news and social media, that dis-comfort just won’t go away. We are all facing the truth that our culture is so rooted in the DO-ing. Achieving. Being Active. Creating. Winning. And the biggest one of all… that all this hyperactivity is beneficial to our pocketbooks.
It is what the Chinese philosophers call Yang energies, also known as the masculine.
The topic of quarantine is that of quiet contraction or Yin, also known as the feminine.
So, I sit in meditation. Bake some bread. Read a paragraph in my book. Check on the kids. Have a snack. Call my sister. Read another paragraph (maybe the same one). And I’m ok with it all. For a short time. But the clock is ticking loudly, and I start itching to move. My mind has been conditioned to plan, create, and grow. I am used to being rewarded for my drive, being a hard-worker, and making money. When can I bring clients back to healing space? I was just getting started with this work. Is it all gone? Cue panic and anxiety.
I’m wondering if this is an invitation to let go of the go-getter in me, and bring in the balance of true stillness as a bigger lesson on how to live when we do return to life beyond the forced quarantine.
Perhaps this is an opportunity to let go of the trophy of multi-tasking and to be completely present with what is directly in front of us. To be in the knowing that after every contraction inward is a flow outward. It is the cycle of life as intended.
There is no judgement on the Yang; on capitalism, growth, busy-ness. It is all part of the outward flow. And the quietness, the softness, the gentleness is the love that pulls us back to center. It is in calling in the Yin, the feminine, that the polarity is dissolved.
The Yin to Yang. Masculine to feminine. Right to wrong. Light to dark. Abundance to scarcity..
There is no right or wrong at the zero point where all of life begins and returns, where the rhythm and cycle of life tenaciously continue. The Yin calls to the Yang. The Masculine evokes the Feminine. Light seeps into dark and abundance flows into scarcity. When the opposite is called in with love, there is aligned and poetic harmony. All lines of energy, latitude and longitudinal, intersect at the space of my heart. Where there is only love.
Charlotte Keane leads a weekly Shamanic drum circle on Fridays at 7 p.m. and a monthly Women's Circle the first Sunday of each month at Revolution Yoga. She also works privately with clients in her private healing setting.