The Yin and Yang of Creativity

ABSTRACT:
Within you, there are 2 innate natures, colliding, embracing each other and negotiating one with the other, each day; your feminine nature and your masculine one. Whether you are a male or a female, these both natures reside inside yourself.

From this point of view, creativity is the two sides living together within the same „you”.

ARTICLE TEXT:
Why do human males have nipples?

The consensus right now is that male nipples are a relic of a human development stage when the embryo had the potential of becoming either a male or female. Male and female mammalian embryos start out along a common developmental pathway which, for a short while, has the potential to produce either male or female anatomy (around week 8–10 of pregnancy).

In a way it is as nature is showing us in one intriguing way that all our lives we carry with us the potential of becoming a male or a female. And in a more psychological and spiritual way, this relic is one strange reason to say that we are yin and yang (eastern civilization), androgynous (western) all our lives.

“Have you ever wondered why life comes in opposites? Why everything you value is one of a pair of opposites? Why all decisions are between opposites? Why all desires are based on opposites?” (Ken Wilber).

Within you, there are 2 innate natures, colliding, embracing each other and negotiating one with the other, each day; your feminine nature and your masculine one. Whether you are a male or a female, these both natures reside inside yourself.

Words for your Yin (feminine) side are: passive (docile), Moon, night, intuitive, cold, soft, dark, „to be”, quiet, relationship, cooperation, information, asking and listening, structure, earth, slow, humidity, fluids, death, calm, stillness, weak, submission, small, eastern civilization, multi-tasking, care, responsibility, communion, connections and so on. Words for your Yang (masculine) side are: active (aggressive), Sun, day, logical, hot, hard, bright, „to do” and „to have”, noisy, directness telling, autonomy, function, sky, fast, dryness, energy and matter, birth, expressive, movement, strong, dominance, big, western civilization, single-tasking, justice, rights, agency, rules, and so on.


Within Yang, there is Yin and vice-versa.

What does this tell you about creativity?

From this point of view, creativity is the two sides living together within the same „you”.


Few people are creative from this point of view, as few people may embrace their both natures; few of us are able to transcend the socially solidified „Ego” and act from their feminine nature as males and act from their masculine nature as females. Though, each of us is more feminine or more masculine in our daily endeavors. At the extremes, there are the „mannish men” and „womanish women”. A “mannish man” is extremely self-centered, egotistic, working only for himself, alienated, extremely dominant, aggressive. A “womanish woman” is completely dedicated to others, completely altruistic, lost in relationships, melt-down into others. And, in between there are 7 billion or more combinations of „mannish women” and „womanish men”. Look around! Have you met today a „strong” woman? Or a „weak” man? Do you have bossy women around and reserved men? How are you, yourself?

When one embraces his both partial (half) natures and may act in both ways, he becomes creative, becomes a complete human being, an integral one. Creation needs both sides to erupt. Creation needs no separated parts; there are hermaphrodite plants, animals and seeds on this planet. Somehow, nature arranged creation to be an act of two relating with each other but did not put a rule of clear separation.

In the most pure sense, creation needs a copulative movement, the transmission of information, energy and matter from one side to another and back; as such, creativity needs a movement of ideas from one side to another. Hence the expression „let the ideas have sex”.

You can not have great ideas coming only from one side; it needs the information, energy and matter from the other side to really be appreciated as a grand idea, an innovative one.

If you look at the most famous people of our civilization; why did they remain famous after so many decades, centuries or millennia? Even our dearest cultural icons are such: think of all the heroes! Don’t they express somehow their both sides? Gandhi: a life dedicated to his ideas (mannish) serving millions (womanish). Mother Teresa (woman): a life dedicated to her ideas (mannish) serving millions (womanish). And one the most innovative leaders and creators, Steve Jobs (man): a life dedicated to his ideas (mannish) serving millions (womanish). Nikola Tesla. Elon Musk, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Rosa Parks, Eva Peron, Malala Yousafzai, Jesus, Buddha, Martin Luther King, John Lenon, Charles Chaplin.

All of them, they represent the more balanced self of human species, the embrace of both their feminine and masculine nature. And they serve millions after they are no more because “complete” and “integral” people like these are sparks in themselves; they carry the seeds of life, creativity and progress.

All thse ideas are part of “The Leadership Spark: The NEW Integral Technique to Ignite Your Creative, Innovative and Strategic Leadership" a book to be published soon.