Discovering Your Yin and Yang in Treatment

From the recovery perspective, yin and yang are valuable spiritual concepts.  Many Westerners’ miss yin and yang’s gifts due to the nebulous definitions which are known through their interdependence.  To grasp this, consider yin and yang through multiple meanings.  Naming only a few, yin is being to yang’s doing; yang is light and yin shadow; yin is feminine and yang masculine.  To discover the balance that yin and yang offer, you must look at yin and yang as a whole and acknowledge that a seed of the other exist in each.

Yin and Yang

Commonly, a person may identify as either mostly yin or mostly yang at the beginning of treatment.  Determining whether you lean towards yin or yang is an important awareness for a quick and direct journey towards healing. Understanding yourself through this perspective will enable you to cultivate balance on your path forward.  For example, some people have very little internal structure guiding their actions.  This expresses as emotional impulsivity or an inability to show up for life responsibilities based on their feeling state.  

Alternatively, yang on the other hand, can appear as an individual who very efficiently and consistently goes through the recovery lifestyle of doing service, recovery work and having relationships with others in recovery.  However, these actions may appear or feel like checking off tasks on a to-do list.  These actions do not become embedded in the essence or lifestyle of the doer.  

These are only two simplified and extreme examples of what can be manifested in recovery by  understanding yin and yang as a system.  Once your own versions are identified, a focused effort to blend the two engagements into one holistic way of living can occur.  Be aware that if a person was mostly yang, there may be a period of concentrated yin necessary before arriving at the blended state, and reverse.  The pendulum swinging is a normal part of the evolutionary process.

While striving for this optimum blended state, remember to enjoy the process of discovery while moving toward it. This, in itself, is the point of recovery.  

If you are struggling with addiction, alcoholism, and/or mental health, know that there is hope. There is a solution. Harmoniously fusing together the best elements of clinical care, holistic healing, and 12-step philosophy, Enlightened Solutions has created a program of total transformation for men and women seeking recovery. Call 833-801-5483 today for information on our partial care programs in New Jersey.