Angie Ilg

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A Surprising Reason for Overwhelm

Overwhelm isn’t just about having too much on your plate, or thinking too many steps ahead. It can also come from overly-embodying masculine energy, and discounting the value of feminine energy. In this article I break down common misunderstandings about these energies, so that you can begin to feel more harmony and balance in your life, and feel like you can catch a deep breath again.

I was talking to a client this morning that shared with me that he felt totally overwhelmed, exhausted, depleted, and relatively numb. Can you relate? We did some digging, and it turns out he couldn't remember the last time he had a full day off, where he did no work.

I asked him, "If you had some time off to relax and have fun, what would you do?" He had a hard time answering that question. It'd been so long since he had fun or relaxed, he didn't really know what that would look like. So then I asked him, "Are you familiar with the difference between the masculine and feminine energies?" He was not very familiar. And for most people, they're either not familiar, or they misunderstand what it is, and how to use the wisdom to positively affect their life. 

To briefly sum it up, the masculine is very linear, logical, and goal-oriented. It's more left-brain thinking, more objective, and focused on outcome versus process. You can see how this is important, but it's only one part of the equation. The masculine is about action, doing, getting, giving, achieving, competition, and push. 

The feminine, on the other hand, is very circular, and non-linear. The feminine energy is less concerned with the goal, and more about the process. She is more right-brained, subtle, and more subjective. The feminine is about rest, creativity, invitation, vulnerability, intuition, pause, and receiving. 

We live in a culture that worships the masculine, and looks down on the feminine. We're taught that doing and having and achieving are equated with your worth as a human being. 

We're taught the vulnerability is weak, intuition is woo, and pausing is unproductive i.e. not valuable.

I'm here to tell you that it's actually these energies that can powerfully create what you want, quicker and more easily than the masculine alone.

So let's clear a few things up -

Misunderstanding #1: It's about gender.

The masculine and the feminine are not about gender. Whether you're a man or a woman, you have both energies within you, either in harmony or disharmony. Often in disharmony for most in our culture. 🙈 

Misunderstanding #2: One is better than the other.

We need a harmony of both energies in order to live a joyful and fulfilling life. The feminine is like the exhale, and the masculine is like the inhale. Can you imagine if you only inhaled? Is one better than the other?

Misunderstanding #3: The masculine will get you there faster.

We need pause, in order to connect within ourselves and hear our own inner wisdom. Without intuition or pausing, we often find ourselves burning the candle at both ends, doing multiple things at once, trying hard to "get there". We end up making more mistakes, having to correct things, or doing many things at once with divided attention, i.e. taking longer than if we did one thing at a time. But, if we take some time to pause and rest (feminine energies), we might find one simple solution that could get us there faster, rather than running around in circles and killing ourselves in the process. This is an example of slowing down to speed up.

It's oftentimes only in the feminine energy that what we want can finally come to us.

In the exhale, we make room for a new breath to come into our lungs.  But in the masculine - in that push - sometime we end up pushing away from us the exact thing we want. We try to only inhale.

Misunderstanding #4: We won't be ok / have enough if we rest, receive, and spend time being creative.

Money is a great way to illustrate this, because for so many of us, not having enough money is a huge fear. As I was speaking to my client, he shared that he was scared if he took a break, he wouldn't earn enough money. We're taught that you work, you earn, and then you're ok because you have money, i.e. x + y = z. And by having money, that means he's ok. But it doesn't totally work like this. Money is currency, coming from the word 'current', as in wave, as in energy. According to Merriam-Webster, the word currency was borrowed from Anglo-French curant, corant, present participle of coure, courir, which means "to run, flow,".  Just like a wave, just like energy, it flows. So it's not just a simple math equation of time in, money out. Energy is a factor here. And what I've seen happen in my life and in my clients' lives is that when they rest and receive and embody feminine energy, they re-fill their cup, and refuel their energy. And then money can come to them in easy ways. How can you expect to attract abundance from totally depleted energy? It's simple law of attraction - like attracts like. If you have higher vibration energy, you can attract higher vibration energy in the form on abundance. I know that may sound woo, but I have so much experiential evidence in my life and that I've witnessed. And it's also backed up by scientific studies like those that Dr. Joe Dispenza has done.

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We need both the masculine and the feminine. The masculine has a beautiful way of taking ideas and turning them into reality. It can ground us, and bring clarity through action. It can be a driving force moving us forward. But there is absolutely no need to forget about the feminine, and purely push. It won't get you there faster, and in fact, it may stop you from getting there all together, due to exhaustion, burn out, disconnection, and a whole other slew of painful emotions and experiences. 

If you're wondering if the flow of masculine feminine is out of harmony in your life, I encourage you to take some time to breathe. Ask that question, and follow it with 5-10 deep breaths, no thinking, and then just see what wisdom flows to you. Another way to find out is to experiment. What of these feminine energies from the chart above or mentioned in this article could you try weaving into your day today? Maybe that looks like taking a couple dance breaks, doing a meditation, or spending 10 minutes just laying on the ground letting your emotions have space to be felt. 

Sending you love and ease on your journey, and I'm here in full support of your joyful, abundant, love-filled life ✨

Xoxo,

Angie

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