In many situations, we might find ourselves with a level of healthy stress - practicing yoga, in the gym, in our professional lives and even in our hobbies. The stress is good for us; it will help us grow. But if we only have stress, the growth can be more difficult than it needs to be.
The stress is the yang, the masculine energy. When we find a yin, or feminine energy, that can aid the growth. The yin can be the “spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down”, so to speak.
In yoga, we do a stretch and focus our breath and blood-flow into the tendons, relaxing as we are tensing. Or some of our muscles might be very tight in the moment, and the surrounding muscles are completely still.
In a pool hall, we might take the same shot over and over, hundreds of times, just like Minnesota Fats in Walter Tevis’s The Hustler. Our relaxed, welcoming attitude to the outcome provides a soft cushion for our successes and failures.
There, we find comfort in the uncomfortable.
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