The Feminine Creative Principle

 Recently, during a journaling process, I had a sudden memory of myself at age 15. I was at a high school dance in the small Canadian town where I grew up. I was standing outside the gymnasium, alone in the hall. Suddenly, I was struck by a powerful feminine presence in the reflection of the trophy case.

When I realized the reflection in the trophy case was me, I was both awed and afraid of the magnitude of my femininity. At that moment, I remember rejecting my feminine power and shutting it down.

The Disempowered Feminine

Regardless of gender, all human beings are a mixture of masculine energies (the active principle) and feminine energies (the receptive principle) within, and we usually have a predominant nature that expresses itself. I am quite feminine in my nature. I was a traditionally dependent woman in my twenties, and I had very little personal power.

In my twenties, I felt insecure. I married young. From an unconscious inner child place, I thought if I were nice, I would be taken care of financially. Needless to say, the marriage did not have a happy ending. Upon leaving, I realized I needed to make an effort to support myself. Moving ahead in a masculine-driven way to earn a living became my goal.

Over-Busyness

Knowing I needed to support myself financially, I forged ahead in an unbalanced way. I followed an intense work and career retraining schedule that did not honour my need to take breaks, receive self-nourishment, or calm my nervous system.

In the process of moving from dependence to independence, I ignored my feminine longing to rest, dream, wait and incubate. I thought I had a lot of energy to burn, but looking back, I recognize that my creativity was mainly fueled by anxiety.

Such anxiety-driven busyness can lead to the repression of emotions. This can cause depression. Looking back, I can see that my over-masculinized busyness was an avoidance of the deeper feminine nourishment that I needed to balance and rejuvenate. I often suffered with sore adrenals, emotional instability, and periods of exhaustion. Such busyness stopped me from delving into my emotional healing work for periods of time.

Slowing Down

"The conversion of women into mini-men is almost complete. Yet there is no future for humanity if we are all expressing the same masculine qualities, such as competitiveness, independence, logical reasoning, and ambition.

Without the powerful transformative feminine qualities of sensitivity, creativity, nurturing, and purification, along with the deep desire to connect, our bodies, minds, and environments will become unproductive and barren, leading to the extinction of our species."

~ Christine R. Page, MD

Many women develop exaggerated masculine work habits in an effort to make a living. They override the need for self-care and emotional healing. For myself, I lived on caffeine and little sleep when I was working in healthcare full-time, and going to school in the evenings and on weekends. I was constantly stressed.

Excess busyness can create a chronic stress response in the body. And yet, to progress in life, we do not have to live in a state of constant fight or flight. When you are stuck in fight-or-flight mode, your body will feel tense, your heart rate will be elevated, and your brain will be racing constantly. Living in a state of chronic stress is not a balanced way to create!

Balanced Feminine and Masculine

In your masculine creativity, you will feel impelled to take vigorous action to self-actualize, perform and compete. Yet, too much competition can breed loneliness, burnout and isolation. Feminine creativity knows we need to evolve together. As part of connected social systems, we cannot evolve according only to our personal agendas.

The inner feminine yearns to nurture your creative visions in a slow, connected, and sustained manner. Feminine creativity never forces the river. Feminine creativity waits to hear new information from the unseen realms before taking action. The feminine also profoundly nurtures what has already been created.

When your masculine and feminine energies are in balance within, you can harness the strength of your inner masculine to bring your nourished, creative visions into the world in powerful ways.

The Natural Unfolding of Creativity

After many years of strengthening the masculine side of my creativity, it has felt delightful to stop, rest, listen and incubate. The feminine side of my creativity now nourishes my creative visions for longer periods of time. So even as I outwardly seem to be doing nothing, I am gestating something new within.

After a good period of rest, I have noticed that I have much more natural vigour. Then I have the energy to actualize something inspiring in a relatively short period. It is so important to remember not to push creativity when we are tired. 

Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh speaks eloquently about the feminine creative principle:

"To learn to live each moment in deep mindfulness and concentration is the practice. The conception and unfolding of a piece of art take place exactly in the moments of our daily life. The time you begin to write down the music or the poems is only the time of delivering the baby. The baby has to be already in you for you to deliver it. We must make good use of every moment of our daily life in order to allow this insight and compassion to bloom."