Don’t ever underestimate the relevance of the yin-yang factor. We are predisposed to consistently look for the right (that would be singular) answer. What’s the right answer to my dilemma? What’s the right action to take? As logical and almost irrefutable as that approach sounds, I promise you it’s short-sited at best, and here’s a sterling example of how to see, and then capitalize on this premise.
The Problem
You’ve dedicated yourself to trying to think more critically about your decisions, to use good reasoning as the fundamental criterion by which to judge whether to accept or reject any position or action you may take. Even though this is one of the cornerstones of any successful endeavor, you’ll find on many occasions that although you’ve been vigilant and meticulously thought through a critical decision at hand in terms of creating a desired change in your life, that for whatever reason, emotions arise, and your first instinct is to back down. Mysteriously, you’re not even sure why. Once again you find yourself on the fence, and stagnation prevails.
The Solution
You have to remind yourself of the core of what yin-yang represents and the serious value it brings to your decision making process. In essence, yin-yang characterizes opposites working together in tandem, actually complimenting each other.
You’ve undoubtedly been cautioned to differentiate between a reasoned response and an emotional response. Typically, a reasoned response is what we strive for, and an emotionally driven response is something we’re reminded to try to avoid – an “irrational” response if you will. On the contrary, they are actually two complimentary sides of the same coin in more scenarios than you could imagine.
Without question, you want to enact reasonability, the mental activity that consists of organizing information into a series of steps to reach conclusions. But logic and reason, in general, looks to strip subjective emotions from interplaying, and that’s what you want to be careful with. An emotion, or gut feeling won’t necessarily outweigh or override the facts, but it should be weighed in “with” the facts. Those emotionally driven gut-feelings, our deepest sense of what feels right and what is off produce critical information that we must not ignore.
What you’re striving for here is one of the aspects of self-discipline, a balancing of your emotions with your reasoning. Your emotional faculty in a sense helps to guide your moment-to-moment decisions if you let it, working hand-and-hand with your rational mind. Therein lays the yin-yang paradigm I’m speaking to. But a word of warning: Sometimes it would be prudent to ask yourself; is this emotional response legit, or a hard-wired auto-response. I understand this is a lot to consider, but emotions do accompany cognitions, and they may well prove more salient under certain circumstances. The point: The marriage of reason and emotion can be a positive construct, something that is deserving of your attention.
Some Thoughts
I hope you’re beginning to see the relevance of this yin-yang framework between reason and emotion. Thought leader Richard Olivier stated: “Logical and analytical abilities alone can no longer guarantee success.” This is what I’ve been trying to impress upon you. Your logic may be sound, but your conclusions may wane in the process without acknowledging your emotionally driven gut response to your train of thought. Maybe it’s this simple. Listen with your head “and” your (emotionally driven) heart when critical decisions are at hand.
