Balance
The ancient Chinese philosophy of Ying-Yang states that two things can be opposites but also entirely complementary, balanced, and dependent upon each other.
The ancient Chinese philosophy of Ying-Yang states that two things can be opposites but also entirely complementary, balanced, and dependent upon each other. Opposites are intrinsically bound; light and darkness, water and fire, night and day, north and south are some examples. Simply put, there can be no Yin without Yang, no Yang without Yin.
If opposites provide balance, then how can we apply this to aspects of our life? Maybe there are times we need to be bad as well as good, or weak as well as strong and naughty as well as sensible? Perhaps we need these opposing emotions, behaviours and experiences in our lives to strike a healthy balance?
Youngsters can find it particularly hard to strike that balance and often push boundaries to the extreme. As parents, we want to see good behaviour traits in our children and actively discourage negative ones. However, telling a child something is simply wrong or bad isn’t often enough to deter them from doing it. Perhaps instead, we should teach our children the merits of balance and support them in finding what that means.
The need for balance becomes increasingly important during the teenage years when the desire and temptation to take risks increases and the need to push boundaries and experiment with new experiences. During this time, they will look to us for a balanced perspective and will most likely disregard a one-sided view.
When we teach them to be good, sensible and strong, let's also teach them what it means to be bad, naughty and weak. Let’s give them the facts rather than opinion so they can rationalise their own thoughts and feelings, this will help them self-regulate and regain control when they lose balance.
