Community Yin

[Forestluv]

My intention here is to create a community space in which Yin may breath and express itself. I'll be posting in it, yet I don't consider it my journal. There isn't much space for Yin on the main forum, so I'm trying to create space here. Feel free to express yin-related experiences or insights here. 

[Etherial Cat]

I'm loving this idea.  

[Forestluv]

We often associate Yin energy as feminine and womanly. Sometimes it can be helpful to view Yin expressed through an integrated male because it offers contrast.  One of my favorite examples is Gabor Mate. He is a clinical psychologist from Canada. Gabor's understanding abilities don't come from analyzing people as if they were specimens. There is understanding value in that Yang realm, yet Gabor's understanding is within Yin realms of feeling and empathy. Rather than analyzing people with mental/emotional distress as specimens and creating theory from a detached space, Gabor immersed himself within that realm. He decided to live within the poorest area of Vancouver that was filled with abuse, addiction and mental illness. Doing so gave Gabor a sense of what it's like. What it feels like to be marginalized and stigmatized by society. What it feels like to have 'crazy' thoughts and emotions. He was accepted by the community, not because he was a psychologist with brilliant intellectual ideas (yang), but because he could relate (yin). For example, Gabor had a shopping addiction so severe he became obsessive-compulsive about it. It caused himself and his family intense distress. He internalized it all and suffered. He didn't feel comfortable sharing with others because he was supposed to be a psychologist with his shit together. Yet he felt comfortable speaking about it with his new community of addicts, abused and 'abnormals'. And they told him, "Yea, that's kinda like what my experience is like. You understand.". Yet this understanding is not intellectual understanding - it is empathic understanding. 

From his connection and empathic understanding of what it's like - Gabor describes how these dynamics are not just an individual phenomena based on one's genetics and personal decisions (yang). Rather, there are aspects of social (yin) illness. Yin cannot breath at the individual or social level, when Yang dominance is suffocating. Yet Gabor's description does not arise from intellectualization. The underlying energy is empathic understanding.

One of my favorite Gabor videos is the "Myth of Normal". Here he describes how individual distress is impacted by society. Society creates a "myth" of normalcy and those outside that myth become marginalized and stigmatized. For example, someone may be labeled "crazy", "weird" or "abnormal" in a bad way. Gabor illustrates that we are all on a spectrum for "abnormal". We are all on a spectrum for ADHD, dyslexia, addiction, autism, OCD, psychosis etc. Yet we may have it mild enough that it doesn't interfere with our life. After I watched this video, I tried to be mindful of how I might be on the minor end of various spectrums. For example, I noticed that I flip letters in words at times. Sometimes, I have to pause to read words and at times I mispronounce words. Yet it is mild and doesn't interfere with my life much. I don't need to create coping mechanism. However, this has increased my empathic understanding. I had understood what dyslexia is at an intellectual level, yet when I became aware of glimpses of it in myself, I gained empathic understanding.  There was a realization of "Omigosh, so this is what it's like!". Although I am minor on the spectrum, I can much better imagine what it would be like to have more extreme forms. I can now relate much better with people that have dyslexia since I've become aware of minor forms within myself. This is also true for things like ADHD, OCD, anxiety etc. We are all on a spectrum from so minor it we don't even notice it, to moderate with mild impacts, to severe with intense impacts. 

 

[Proserpina]

Thank you for creating this! ^.^

Feels like someone is listening.