Photo by Cristian Newman
Men and women. We can't live without each other, but sometimes we can't live with each other. Why is that?
The answer is quite obvious. We are different.
I remember there was a book "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus" by American author and relationship counselor John Gray.
The book made total sense to me; we are very different, which is why we are attracted to each other and why it is hard to understand one another.
I lived in China for almost eight years, and one thing is for sure, Chinese people really understand this contrast.
The Taoist philosophy of yin-yang even forms the basis for Traditional Chinese Medicine.
These are just a few things I've learned.
Yinyang （阴阳） - two beautiful characters, which mean the following:
阴 yin is a woman, female, feminine, moon, shade, negative, night, north of a hill or south of a river, earth, passive, below, water, minus, cold, acid, wet, dreaming, accepting, slow, and calm, horizontal, estrogen.
阳 yang is a man, male, muscular, sun, bright, positive, day, south of a mountain or north of a river, heaven, active, above, fire, plus, hot, alkali, dry, setting goals, giving, fast and active, vertical, testosterone.
This list might seem odd, but the point is that even though we are the opposites, together, we can (if we choose to) be the parts of a greater whole. We can't exist without each other.
If we could accept that we are different and stop fighting it or taking each other's quality... I'm sure we will be happier.
If you look precisely at YinYang Symbol, you might notice that Yin part (the black female one) has a tiny drop of white and Yang part (the white male one) has a small drop of black.
Women have some male qualities which we can use and embrace. Let say when we work out or running a business, we want those masculine qualities. We need to be active, enduring; we have to be the decision-makers and the achievers.
And men have some female qualities as well. They can be gentle and sweet, calm and quiet, understanding, and supportive.
In my opinion, it's all about keeping a balance and be harmonious with each other and ourselves.
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