Can one see light without having experienced darkness? Why can successful people feel darkness?
Yin and yang is an ancient Chinese concept describing how all the forces of the universe consist of opposites that complement each other. The fundamental idea is that nothing can exist without its opposite. It is not just a symbol of balance, but a framework for reflection. It is a description of reality. We live in a world defined by its extremes. We almost constantly strive for something better, something brighter, some form of success, while trying to avoid the darkness of grief and setbacks. But it is easy to forget that one side cannot exist without the other.
Although traditional philosophy assigns fixed traits to the colors of yin and yang, the symbol works perfectly as a tool for personal prioritization and life balance. Yin and yang can function as a personal compass for harmony. It is a template where you can place the forces in your own life that currently need equilibrium – for instance, making room for both achievement and simply “being,” without one eclipsing the other. You can choose for yourself which areas fill each side based on what you want to prioritize right now. More common examples could be ambition and recovery, security and adventure, or social life and time alone.
Life can sometimes feel challenging because we are constantly facing these scales, where balance usually proves to be the best path. But, can you truly appreciate your own balance without having experienced both sides?
If balance is the answer, what is the problem?
The definition of both light and darkness is created through contrast. Our consciousness functions best through comparison (though not always). For example, a warm summer day feels best after a long, cold winter. We experience the present through the contrasts of our feelings; without shifts in mood, time would flow together. Sorrow makes joy clearer, and in the same way, darkness makes the light more beautiful.
The pursuit of the “bright side”, such as success, results in one falling into the belief of an imagined paradise. Even though the road there is marked by a balance including setbacks, the appreciation of that light, in the form of success and wealth, can fade once you actually reach it. Often, this is often due to a lack of the “big picture”, but what does that really mean?
The question of what is worth sacrificing to reach happiness, success, or whatever one has chosen to place in the “bright” part (yang) is highly individual and surely shifts throughout different periods of life. It is, without a doubt, a difficult question. Despite a formal balance between yin and yang, darkness against light, it might still not be a completely perfect framework for well-being. Having a “big picture” view of several things that feel important, or for which one feels gratitude, can shift the focus away from single priorities, even when they feel most crucial in the moment. This is exactly what seeing the big picture is about: the priority of what is most important “right now” must not eliminate the thought of other things that matter in life. This may be the very reason why success can result in a lack of happiness, even if the road there was lined with setbacks that created a balance. Blindness occurs, when focusing on only a few parameters to determine the balance between light and darkness in one’s life creates tunnel vision.
Universal Yin and Yang Components and the Pressure on Youth
In an attempt to design a clearer and more formal set of universal components for one’s life-long yin and yang compass, there is one thing that must be included immediately: friends, family, and the people we appreciate. We thrive best in the company of others, and without a sense of belonging or feeling needed in the lives of others, the “dark” part can easily take over. If you have no one to celebrate and share your light and happy moments with, what is all the work worth?
However, the question arising from this, is what being “successful” actually means. What is worth sacrificing on the road to get there? It is not easy to know, especially among us students where we are expected to be at the top. Being successful is, after all, a personal question. But if one were to replace the word, the goal, or the focus with “feeling happiness,” I believe that the concept of being successful is merely a subsequent consequence of that.
Summary
There are several examples of experiments and challenges focused on breaking a person down only for them to emerge stronger, such as in certain military contexts. It is suggested that those who undergo extreme hardship and come out on the other side often experience a transformation-quite simply a re-evaluation, of life; a repositioning within one’s yin and yang model. But to translate this into the more normal circumstances of our lives, the valleys in one’s journey create a self-awareness that is often one of the most powerful tools when facing the next low point. “If I handled this, I can definitely handle the next thing,” or “I do not need to be nervous; I have done much worse things.” These ways of pushing oneself can be incredibly beneficial. Using comparisons with past life events in a positive way is a powerful weapon.
Yin and yang are a bit like the stars requiring the night sky. You cannot see the stars unless the night sky is dark. The darker it is, the brighter the light shines. And in a way, life is like that too. It is in the darkness that we see the light – a reminder that difficulties are not just obstacles, but prerequisites for seeing what truly glimmers in existence.
Around the circular, sphere-like symbol of yin and yang, one thing remains certain: it is a matter of gratitude.
