the medicine of opposites

When we don’t have enough money, enough love, enough joy or pleasure... when our core needs are out of balance, what do we do?

I spend a lot of time looking for ways to bring harmony and balance into my life. I can hold a greater capacity for more, bigger, beautiful, evolving and confronting experiences because I reach for the medicine of opposites.

It’s a concept that originates in both Ayurveda, the principle that "everything can be medicine" and Traditional Chinese Medicine, the basic idea of the 'yin- yang theory'.

Ayurveda recognises that our daily choices and lifestyle habits have the potential to influence our overall balance and promote homeostasis. Like increases like, and opposites cancel each other out. It is natural to warm ourselves when it is cold, to moisturise our skin when it is dry, to eat cooling foods when we are hot, and to need more rest when we are stressed.

TCM nods to the two natural, complementary and contradictory forces in our universe, the principle of opposite polarity and duality. The meaning of yin and yang is that the universe is governed by a cosmic duality, and sets off two opposing and complementing principles or cosmic energies that can be observed in nature. Yin and yang elements come in pairs. The moon and the sun, female and male, dark and bright, cold and hot, passive and active, and so on. It is believed that to be healthy, one needs to balance the yin and yang forces within one's own body.

This is not only true for our bodies.

It’s true for our minds, thoughts and as a result life experiences as well.

At its very core the medicine of opposites states that all is energy and all energy needs to be in balance to achieve well-being. The theory is all-inclusive, intuitive and seated in your own inner knowing.

Everything has inherent qualities of polarity in its energy.

The magnificent miracle of life is that we are essentially tiny oceans bound by skin somehow walking around having conversations, inventing smartphones, writing on the internet, reading memes and spending far too long watching cats do weird stuff.

The water in our bodies is balanced out by the hardness of our bones. That’s the medicine of opposites at work. Otherwise, we would be highly sophisticated slugs.

This medicine of opposites plays out in every sphere of life. We are living in a world of interdependence.

Applying the medicine of opposites to our challenges, how do we intentionally harness this cosmic principle to bring about positive changes and in essence, more harmony in our lives?

When we don’t have enough money, enough love, enough joy or pleasure, a sense of direction, stable health and wellness, a life that we adore, the perception of belonging, feeling connected to something larger than us… when our core needs are out of balance, how do we find that balance again?

We do the opposite.

— When there’s something we want to avoid, we lean into it.

— When we feel financial lack, we seek abundance in our lives.

— When our intuition has abandoned us, we repair our connection with it.

— When we want more of something, we find out where it already exists.

— When creatively stuck, we don’t give up, we summon our inner muse.

— When life feels like it’s ending, we recognise the cyclical nature of it.

I teach the concept and application of the medicine of opposites in my work. It’s the primary principle of my approach in life. Life topics covering: money, creativity, intuition, manifesting, starting life all over again (renewal), and running a heart-led online business…