Does Your Feminine Business Need A Masculine Touch?
The principles of the Feminine and Masculine (which I’m not going to go into here, but if you don’t know about it a good internet search will help) are well known in the complimentary health and wellness sector, but they are rarely thought about in terms of business. Taking a look at whether our business is balanced in these two energies can make the difference between the business or project thriving, getting by, or worse, ending.
And, to be clear, I’m not talking about male and female here. I’m talking about the energies within us and the universe: the yin and yang, shiva and shakti.
A handful of years ago I deep dived into a year long Shamanic Womancraft course led by Jane Hardwicke Collings. The course was called ‘4 Seasons Journey’ because, it not only took place over the 4 seasons, but it also invited us to contemplate the seasons and cycles of woman, such as the maiden, mother, saga and crone phases.
The Long Dance
It was during the second gathering that we took part in what is known as ‘The Long Dance’ inspired by Elizabeth Cogburn, who is one of the modern pioneers in developing rituals and ceremonies.
The Long Dance is made up of a centre, with 2 concentric circles. The centre represents freedom and is neither masculine or feminine. When in there you can do what you like-move how you want to. The inner circle represents the feminine and has a set flowing action you perform if you position yourself there. The outer circle is the masculine and also has a set movement that is less ‘flowy’ than that of the feminine and more structured. On the edges of the circle are drummers beating frame drums to a particular rhythm.
No-one knows when it will end it just does
The drums beat and the dance begins and no-one knows when it will end. The only rules are: the movements, you stay in the dance till the end, and that there is always a minimum number of people in each space at any one time, ie, forming one of the circles or in the centre.
The Long Dance taught me a valuable business lesson
Since this is a blog about business I’ll cut the story short and get to my point, which was about my experience with the Long Dance and how it taught me a very valuable lesson in life and business.
I don’t know how long I had been dancing but it must have been a while because even though the rules had been set people were sitting out exhausted. This created low numbers in the circles and at times they fell below the minimum asked for.
I gained a great understanding of the importance of the masculine and feminine
What I experienced, was when the numbers in the outer ‘Masculine’ circle fell below minimum, I didn’t feel safe to be in the inner ‘Feminine’ circle or the centre. I felt I would spin off, or that I couldn't let go fully and embody the feminine or rest and re-energise in the inner void at the centre.
It created an anxiety within me, as well as a resentment in all areas. In the masculine I felt tired of trying to hold everything together whilst the feminine floated around. In the feminine I felt abandoned and unsafe. I gained a great understanding of the importance of both principles.
How does this apply to business?
As my business grew and I supported more people with Heart Centred Businesses I began to see some common trends. One of those trends was an imbalance of the Masculine and Feminine principles in peoples energy and therefore, business.
Lots of people are highly creative, they birth new idea after new idea, yet have no idea, or just can’t seem to get each creation off the ground, so to speak.
Business not taking off? Do not birth another idea until you read this!
Often clients come to me because they are frustrated at the lack of time, direction, clients, money etc. Like me, some of them are in the Long Dance without a strong masculine outer circle. They are tired and frustrated and think that if they just keep creating, something will happen…I’m here to tell you, it won’t! Ouch!
Heal (or listen to) your inner masculine to help with business
If you recognised yourself in this, the solution is to invite your masculine into your business…and that may not be easy…especially if you have some healing of it to do?
If what I have said resonates with you, take comfort, there is lots you can do - including inner work, because let’s face it, if you have an issue with your inner masculine, that needs sorting first. We all know, what happens within, happen outside too!
Inner work to balance the masculine principle
Start with a simple conversation-sit quietly with yourself and simply talk to your masculine. Tell him how you feel and what you need.
Clear your charkas-there is a wealth information and videos on chakra balancing dive into youtube to find one that resonates with you.
Deeper enquiry-go deeper with your inner conversations and ask for what needs healing, dig deep and be honest with yourself. There is nothing to be afraid of it is all your energy.
Journaling-writing things down can often be a cathartic experience with more wisdom being harvested than when you don’t. And it’s a great excuse to buy another beautiful note book!
Stand in a power pose often-research has shown that standing a power pose increases testosterone and confidence. It activates our masculine!
Outer Steps to balance the masculine principle
Our masculine energy supports creation (the feminine) it is the container that holds something together till it can be made manifest. It is focused, structured, goal-oriented, stable, strong, logical, and driven.
Invest in an ideas book-you actually don’t have to give birth to all your ideas. Everything has a life cycle and somethings weren’t meant to manifest into the physical as their home is in the realm of the imagination. When you are a highly creative being it is sometimes difficult to contain your excitement over an idea. It’s like it needs to burst out of you and you find it difficult to ‘hold it’ in the container of the masculine. That’s where the ideas book comes in. Writing it down is like getting it outside of you. Give it a day or two for the energies to settle, then go back to it and see if you still really love the idea, before making plans.
Take a step-by-step approach-when you have a creative idea work backwards. Write down your end goal and work back asking how you will achieve each step needed.
Planning-although you may find it difficult, and it feels like the ‘boring bit’ take some time to plan instead of getting carried away on the energy of creation. Planning is nothing more than thinking before the action takes place. There could be lots of different plans before one is settled on.
Strategy-a step further than planning, in that it is a comprehensive plan. It is when you have chosen which plan you are going to go with and then mapping that out.
Run it through the logical test-play it out in your head. Have a run through to see if it can actually work before jumping in. Before creating that wonderful 2 day course, think about how you will get people to attend first. How much time do you need to get the word out?
Run it through the practical test-similar to the logical test. Invite your masculine to come up with the practicalities that support your creation. What really needs to happen to make it work (other than a magic wand)?
Take small steps-Try not to bite off more than you can chew. You really don’t need to do everything at once, even though ALL the ideas are great.
A word of caution
When balancing your masculine and feminine energies it can sometime feel like the masculine element is just a great big party pooper squashing all your ideas, dreams and magic. The thing is, it isn’t. It’s your own beautify energy after all and you want yourself to succeed don’t you? Well, it does too. Our masculine element wants to love and support your wildest dreams so they can become manifest. It definitely doesn’t want you to exhaust yourself with ideas that don’t take off. So, remember that, when you feel like it just doesn’t get you!
And…..
You may just need to get a bit of help too. Employing the services of people that do that sort of thing daily to help business thrive can really make the difference.
