I have struggled to find the words for this, but like so many things that have a feminine essence, it is not exactly palpable. But here, I will try: it is HARD to be a woman in this world, in this economy, in capitalism. The orientation is toward growth (yang), achievement (yang), competition (yang), and pushing through (yang). Where is the yin in all of that? Those are all qualities of testosterone (literally!).
Women are actually, biologically, not built to be in that Yang mode 100% of the time. Yes, we can do it. We can! We do! I do! You do! We do it, we push, we go-go-go.. I build my practice, I push myself so that I can start to save for retirement because, yeah, with the cost of running a medical practice, I have not yet made enough to start saving for retirement. But I could have. I absolutely could have pushed myself to grow and earn loads of money, but I have known that is not congruent with how my system works and I know I would make myself ill, sooner or later.
So, rather than risk burnout, I continually try to choose my Yin way of BEING, rather than pushing my Yang way of doing. I am a mother and a care provider and a woman and all of those things call on my delicious Yin energy, and I wish to relish in that. I just wish our culture would permit us to really be ourselves, to take the quiet moments, and rest and replenish, and be rewarded not for pushing, but for our Yin qualities.
“We were never in danger of burning out…”
