"Don’t just do something, stand there!” ~ Robert A. Johnson
Horses are effortless masters at managing and keeping in balance their energy levels. Living mainly in the Yin – Feminine way of being, they store up their energy for necessary actions, never needlessly wasting their energy, for they know, deep in their DNA, that to do so could be fatal. They may have been long domesticated by humans but they still retain all of their most acute survival instincts and knowledge; energy conservation is one such retained instincts.
People, on the other hand, have become hopelessly confused at this skill. As a species, because we have pursued the head above the body for several hundred years, we have lost that intimate connection to our very own bodies, and thus can barely tell exactly how we are feeling most days: We over-work, endlessly pushing ourselves on, and others in the process, until exhaustion and irritation set-in. Then we collapse for a couple of weeks a year, if we’re lucky, hoping that a “well-earned holiday” will somehow magically rectify 50 weeks of gross imbalance.
We have long-since forgotten and eschewed our highly intelligent body as the powerful guide it once was. We ignore and override gut instincts, preferring to be rational, logical and scientific above all else. The mess which has resulted is evident in every individual. I mean, who hasn’t suffered from stress and exhaustion at one time in their life? But it has and continues to wreak havoc on us as a society and as a species globally. As, when we eschew our own body, we also regard the natural world in the same dismissive manner. None of it is relevant, we arrogantly tell ourselves, only the mind matters…
I am convinced, as are many others now that this grotesque imbalance has come about because as a species we have so denigrated anything remotely connected to The Feminine. We have cut-out our feeling natures; our intuition; our physical, somatic and matter’s wisdom; we have allowed the head to dominate and punish the body and the rest of nature; and we have all, men and women, allowed ourselves to be heaved up and swept along with the powerful current of Patriarchy; science always has the final say; the brain and the ego still very much reign supreme.
What a sorry state to be in… But in it we are. So what to do about it? Well, let’s go back to our friends the horses for guidance.
Horses teach us the gift and healing potential within being fully present in each moment. With their Zen-like abilities, they lure us into an altered state of consciousness; if we can curb our compulsion to be busy that is. Simply observing a herd or horses or even a single horse for a period of time can teach us how better to balance our being and doing sides. We can see how horses rest for long periods, they also graze quietly and methodically for extended periods, then, suddenly, they spring into a more active mode, maybe to push another horse away, or to play, or fight, they might run when the hay truck arrives, or scatter in a flash of an eye if something startles one of them. Then, as soon as the activity is over, they go back to resting; to simply being. Until the next wave of energy is required. They don’t over-work themselves; we do that to them. They don’t run more than they have to because they know they might need to run later to get to safety, so they preciously conserve their energy. They are masters at snoozing, both standing up and lying down. And they even eat in a Zen-like way, slowly chewing their grass or hay, calmly and without fuss.
Everything they do is done with minimum effort so that when more energy is required they have plenty stored up, ready and waiting to be activated.
What is so key for us to learn is to work on finding this balance on a daily basis, because energy works through us all of the time.
In his beautiful memoirs, Balancing Heaven and Earth, Jungian therapist, lecturer and author Robert A. Johnson says about balancing being and doing that: “there is no simple recipe; everyone is different”. I think finding the right balance for you also greatly depends on your “psychological type”, i.e.: Whether you are an Introvert or an Extrovert. Introverts usually need much less time being out in the world around people, always being busy. Whereas extroverts are the opposite. Inevitably therefore, both have a tendency to swing one way too much, and so again, balance is the key ingredient for health and fulfilment.
As I said earlier, generally speaking, our society pushes us to be active and doing all of the time, only taking breaks occasionally after many months of non-stop activity. But this is false and somewhat idiotic. It is also very bad for us individually and as a society. It results in massive levels of stress, physical disease and mental health problems. We can see this and yet we all keep going on this modern day treadmill like compliant hamsters forever spinning on our wheel…
It’s so important not to flip from one side to the other and stay there, but rather find way each day to find and keep the balance.
I’ve found for myself and my clients that because we’re conditioned to be “do-ers” all of the time, both by our personal families and wider society, that it can be very difficult and often also very uncomfortable to experience just “being”. For people with an on the alert, heightened nervous system who have a history of trauma, it can be especially difficult to let go and drop into non-doing.
I’ve also found that because of this propensity for doing that it means to begin with, we need to spend LOTS of time practising just being, with the horses’ help, who of course are Zen masters of being states. At first, we need to emphasis being so that we can re-programme both their mind and their body (the nervous system) to get used to and eventually enjoy experiencing being states. For many of us, the almost addictive, compulsive tendency to be busy and doing all the time with our mind busy, is a very hard habit to break and so takes much consistent practice and gentleness with yourself.
However, overtime, it’s important to find the right balance of doing and being to suit you. Not to stay in one realm or the other, but instead, to find ways to inhabit both regularly each day. So, after some time focusing more on being, (and this can be a long time for many people), then it’s important to shift back to finding that sweet spot: the middle ground where we can then step into either realm effortlessly, and without feeling the pull of compulsion to stay solely in one realm for too long.
Then, just like the horses, we can eventually learn to be active, rest, then resume activity before resting again.
To truly know the yang but keep to the yin...
© Angela Dunning, The Horse's Truth, www.thehorsestruth.co.uk