Yin & Yang in The Home

Feminine/Masculine. Light/Dark. These are common thoughts of what Yin and Yang represent. But there’s so much more. Yin and yang represent complementary opposites. And everything can be expressed in terms of yin/yang balance.

Yin is passive and yang is active. So how is that represented in your home? We’ll get to some common symbolisms in a minute. But first, it’s important to know what you, yourself, are drawn to – more yin or more yang. There’s no right or wrong to this. It’s just who you are and where you feel better – in environments with more yin energy or more yang energy. Often we find that it’s not a static thing either. Sometimes I feel better with yin, sometimes with yang. However, mostly I am ‘at home’ with yin energy.

Here’s the thing – just because yin energy feels the most comfortable to me doesn’t mean it’s always the ‘best’ for me. Sometimes I need motivation, energy, light – yang energy. And even though it doesn’t feel ‘comfortable’, it’s what I need to move forward, to get things accomplished.

So let’s look at some common keywords for yin and yang so you’ll begin to identify items in your home with their energies.

Yin is . . . black	Yang is . . . white
dark	light
muted	bright
curved	straight
dimly lit	brightly lit
moist	dry
low	high
quiet	loud
soft	hard
horizontal, sinking	vertical, rising
empty	full
decreasing, reducing, shrinking	growing, expanding
hidden	exposed
earthy	urbane
traditional	innovative
cool	warm
still	moving

Take a look around the room your in right now. After reading the chart above, does it feel more yin or yang to you? Or fairly equal?

 

While an equal balance seems to be an obvious choice, it’s not always the optimal choice for an environment. Next time we’ll look at some photos of interiors so you get a better ‘feeling’ of yin and yang in colors and furniture.