The Desert of Arizona
Sunny 47 Degrees
Years ago, I discovered the work of David Deida.
I read his book, The Way of the Superior Man.
The book is focused on the relationship and polarity between masculine and feminine energy and how the two mix in the world.
Notice I didn’t say men and women, although I could have. Men can have feminine energy, women can have masculine.
There’s a lot of goodness in that book. A lot of truth. So much truth, in fact, that it probably offends the sacred cows of many, many people. Oops.
There’s just one idea I want to highlight that can help you in your work and life.
It’s something that’s very simple to remember but extremely profound when put into practice:
Feminine energy is the wave of emotion.
Masculine energy is the stillness. It stands as an ever present witness to the wave.
This is why, if you’re predominantly masculine energy, constantly trying to “fix” the problems of your feminine energy partner gets you in such hot water.
I could have saved myself an enormous amount of frustration if, years ago, someone had said, “When your wife comes to you upset, please DON’T TRY TO FIX IT. Instead, just stand there in it with her and be the stillness around which the emotional wave will flow.”
They don’t want you to fix it. They want you to stand in the storm and be present.
This is an attractive skill to have.
It is attractive to feminine energy because it provides a strong foundation of support.
It is also attractive to masculine energy because it shows them the power they could have in the face of challenge.
In the client world, the same energetics apply. The same polarities of masculine and feminine.
And there’s a TON of emotion flowing through this world all the time.
- Emotion when the merchant account gets shutdown.
- Emotion when the website gets hacked.
- Emotion when the good client goes bad.
- Emotion when the good employee goes crazy.
- Emotion when you get criticized or fired.
- Emotion when nothing is working out the way you want.
You can either be swept away by the wave, or you can allow it to wash over you and stand as the witness so you can learn.