The Illusion of Separation

We’ve all heard the language—masculine and feminine, divine opposites, sacred balance. But what if that balance isn’t what we’re meant to seek? What if the very *idea* of opposition is the first illusion?

When I reflect back through the lens of yoga, presence, and my lived experience as both teacher and student, I know this: we were never meant to live in a tug of war. We were meant to merge.

And we were once merged.

Before the systems, the roles, the control. Before patriarchy misnamed presence as power and softness as submission.

In the origin field—the one we all remember if we go back far enough—there were no “sides.” There was breath and the space that received it. Pulse and the stillness that followed. Reaching and rooting. Masculine and feminine were not opposites.

They were partners in flow.

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Where It Went Sideways

Somewhere along the way, structure became dominance. Receptivity became weakness. The breath got split in half—and suddenly we were either 'doing too much' or 'feeling too much', trying to find wholeness through external roles instead of internal reunion.

We see it everywhere.

The feminine, demanding her return, shows up in our collective longing to slow down, feel more, soften, surrender.

The masculine, craving remembrance, shows up in our craving for purpose, stability, stillness, anchoring.

And yet they often feel like they're fighting in us.

Why?

Because we’ve mistaken duality for truth.

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What If You Stopped Trying to Balance?

What if instead you remembered the field where there was never a split?

What if masculine didn’t mean control—but presence?

What if feminine didn’t mean chaos—but creation?

You wouldn’t have to “balance” anything. You’d just start listening.

You’d meet your own spine and breath like lovers who never stopped dancing.

You’d move, write, speak, and breathe from the middle ground—where the myth of two becomes the memory of one.

This is the field I want to live from. The field I want to teach from.

And I believe this is the field that’s calling us home.

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**Meditation: The Temple Between**

*For reunifying the internal masculine and feminine*

Sit or lie down. Close your eyes. Let the body settle.

Breathe into your root.

Down, down into the place before identity.

Before roles.

Before names.

Let your breath become two:

an inhale that reaches with purpose,

an exhale that yields in devotion.

Let them meet at your heart.

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**Inhale (masculine):**

Feel the structure within you.

The clarity. The container. The spine.

It does not force. It simply holds.

**Exhale (feminine):**

Feel the softness around you.

The waters. The womb-space. The wave.

It does not collapse. It simply flows.

Now imagine the inhale and exhale spiral together

like twin serpents up your spine.

They do not oppose.

They dance.

Each breath braids presence and sensation,

direction and yielding,

structure and mystery.

Place your hands on your heart. Whisper:

**“I am not two. I am the meeting point.”**

**“I do not balance. I remember.”**

Breathe.

Stay.

Return gently, still whole.

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With breath, always,

Tina Chabot

e-RYT 5

00

Ayurvedic Health Counselor

Tina Chabot School of Yoga