Balance: Embrace Expansion & Contraction For Growth

Hey this is Ish and today I want to talk to you about the energies of expansion and contraction and why understanding these two energies can actually really help balance your life out.

These specific energies have been talked about for thousands of years,

Especially in Eastern philosophy,

Especially Taoism,

Where these energies are known as yin and yang energies.

However,

I'll be talking more about the Western point of view and how understanding these types of energies can really help you out.

So when we look at the energy of expansion,

This is where you're focusing on the externals in life.

So perhaps you're working on a business or focusing really hard on your career or a personal project that you may have or any kind of goal setting.

This is where expansion falls into place.

And a lot of the content that I make regarding self-development is in this category where you're working on improving and expanding in life.

However,

This needs to be balanced with the other force of contraction.

And contraction is where you take your energy and start to bring it inwards.

And this is where you start to become more reflective,

More inwardly focused,

And you're actually not really paying attention to the external world.

And you're taking time to process things and you're moving at a slower pace.

And this is where a lot of my content involving spirituality or meditation falls into place,

Where you're actually detaching and taking yourself away from the world to look inwards.

And both are actually very important.

And one way to conceptualize this teaching is to think of a tree.

So think of a very tall tree.

The tree's growth is due to the expansion.

And what actually holds the tree into place is actually a very strong root system that goes underneath.

So the tree going upwards is the expansion part,

But it is equally grounded by a very strong root system,

Which is a contraction,

Which allows you to be grounded in your experience.

And likewise,

You can take this analogy and apply it to your life.

So if you're overly focused on expanding and you're just focusing on,

You know,

Growing and getting to the next level,

You'll actually hit a plateau.

And this is because your root system isn't strong enough to handle setbacks that may come eventually.

And one way to think of this is,

Let's just take a person who is a singer and they're trying to make it big and they're focusing on their goals and becoming their top musician in their field.

And let's just say they've actually been working hard and they're now achieving some success.

Well,

If they achieve that success too fast,

Which is what a lot of people want to do,

They haven't developed a strong root system in place.

So what will eventually happen is that as they rise,

They'll be knocked down by a lot of the challenges that may come their way.

So as they gain more public attention and they're in the spotlight more,

For example,

They may have people start to criticize them.

They may have people try to compete with them and,

You know,

People try to knock them off center and they may not be emotionally ready to handle it.

This is very much like a lot of celebrities that make it big really fast.

So one hit wonders or people that even win the lottery.

They go from a place of not expanding too much to being in a very peak state of expansion or almost overnight.

And you may think that they actually want this,

But they actually end up freaking out or doing crazy things.

And this is because they don't have the context or appreciation that comes from the lows or the contraction parts of life to really appreciate the highs that they've gained through the journey.

So in any kind of journey in life,

You actually want a balance of both expanding and then also that period of contraction where you start to look inwards and not focus on your goals paradoxically to really gain a good understanding and deeper meaning behind whatever you're doing.

And some of the effects of not focusing on the contraction part of your life and the spirituality,

If you will,

Is that you become too attached to things.

And you may also not become very emotionally centered.

You may be ungrounded.

And these can also really impact your life.

And on the other hand,

When you look at the contraction side of things,

This is like a very strong root system,

Like I've mentioned.

Now if you don't have any kind of expansion,

You'll be like a shrub,

Right?

It's very small.

It doesn't expand high into the sky like a redwood tree,

For example,

But it'll be very sturdy.

So if strong winds were to blow through it,

It won't be completely destroyed like a very tall tree would without any kind of root system.

And on the other side,

If you had like a very tall tree with no roots,

It obviously get knocked over very fast.

Likewise,

This is where a lot of people who are really into spirituality and meditation,

And this is obviously stuff I talk about a lot.

You can just search my channel for that.

People really focus on this where a lot of the monks I've met are very resilient,

Nothing can rock them off center.

However,

They haven't really grown in the worldly life,

So to speak,

Because they have voluntarily chosen to get over their possessions and lead a very simple life.

And that's kind of lifestyle they kind of lead.

However,

One thing that isn't really talked about often in the spiritual community is that you do actually need some kind of challenge to stay engaged.

And this is something I can actually personally talk about because I've actually just come out of this phase of my life where I was focusing purely on the meditation aspect of things.

I was sitting at home meditating for a couple hours a day,

Wasn't really going out with friends or really engaging or challenging myself in the world.

I was focusing more on living a very peaceful and chill life.

Now although I was very chill,

I've also noticed a lot of things where I just wasn't engaged.

I didn't have any kind of vitality or energy.

I always felt like I had no energy.

I had a really bad memory.

I was also very emotional at times.

So I didn't really have a certain amount of strength or vitality that the expansion part of life brings me.

So recently,

I started to go out more and started to engage in challenging tasks and start to engage with the world more.

And I saw a lot of these symptoms start to disappear.

And since I teach both of these concepts of expanding into the world by really mastering self-development and growth,

And also the contraction parts of things by meditating and looking inwards,

You as my viewer may find yourself in one of these two categories or phases where you're focusing too much on the expansion parts of things and you need more of that balance of contraction.

Or you may be focusing more on the contraction side of things and you may need more of that expansion to feel more alert.

And one way to tell where you are or if you're kind of overbalanced in one aspect is to notice whether you are becoming very annoyed with things or becoming very frustrated or whining that you aren't getting the results that you want in life.

This is a clear sign that you're focusing a lot on the expansion side of things.

So growing your tree trunk and tree branches,

So to speak,

But you don't have the strong roots in place.

And as a result,

You are getting knocked off center or getting reactive by different things because you haven't processed your stresses and looked inwards a bit more.

So there is a certain aspect of ungroundedness in your being.

Yet,

On the other hand,

If you find that you're very chill,

You're not getting knocked off center by things,

But you just don't feel alive,

You don't have energy and you just feel lethargic all the time and nothing really matters.

You maybe feel apathetic.

These are all symptoms that you're very much into the contraction side of things,

But you actually may need to challenge yourself by engaging in some kind of competition or focusing on a goal and trying to meet that or really just engaging with life a bit more.

So there is very powerful aspects of detaching from life and there's also very powerful aspects of engaging with life,

But they should be done in balance.

And ideally in your journey,

You'll go through these different phases of focusing very much on the introspective side of things and also the active side of things.

But as you start to grow,

You'll get setbacks and those setbacks kind of knock you off center.

And when those setbacks happen,

It's a reminder for yourself to start to look inwards a bit more,

Start to reflect on it,

See how you can grow.

And instead of ignoring the lesson that comes from the setback and the pain that comes from any kind of setback or challenge,

You can actually take the time to process it,

Internalize it and then go forward again.

And you'll find yourself in a stronger position because if you keep pushing yourself forward,

You're eventually going to burn yourself out.

Now you don't want to stay in that contraction period too long because if you find that you are,

Then you'll kind of disengage with life and you lose your vitality,

Your energy,

Unless that's your path in life and you become a monk.

But if you're not,

You'll find yourself very alienated from other people.

You feel very isolated.

You don't feel very engaged and that's also not a good feeling.

So once you've kind of taken your lesson and you've started to look inwards a bit more,

Then apply it and go forward.

So both of these things work in harmony and they both work to balance each other out.

And one last point I'd just like to add is that just understand that every individual has a unique balance and unique set point within this spectrum of expansion and contraction.

So you may have noticed a lot of quote unquote type A type people who are just always active,

Always working on something,

Always focusing on business.

So it is not really realistic to imagine that they're just going to sell all their possessions and become a monk.

Likewise,

You may notice a lot of monk type peoples that are very introspective,

Very quiet,

They can meditate for hours.

You're probably not going to imagine them as a CEO of a top company or focusing on the expansion side of things.

So just understand where you fall in the spectrum.

One key takeaway is to notice where you're overbalanced or which part,

Which side is lopsided.

So if you find that you're overly focusing on the expansion side and you're just getting just totally reactive and angry about things and just want an outcome,

Again,

You're too much in the expansion side that needs to be balanced by the root system of contraction.

Now if you are again focusing too much on the contraction side and you just feel like no energy,

Then again,

Focus on expansion.

So I hope you liked this talk on these two energies and I'm curious to see which phase of life you're in,

Whether you're more in the expansion side of things or the contraction and what you'll do today to find balance if it is out of balance.

So I hope you found this helpful.

Thank you.