Read this episode: Why Your Duality Unlocks Change

Finding Balance in Duality: The Key to Creating What You Want in Life and Law

Ever noticed how creating change in your life can feel like pushing a boulder uphill? Whether you're trying to grow your practice, be more productive, find more family time, or make a major life change, it can feel like a constant struggle — especially if you're approaching it the way I did for years.

I'm currently in Arizona looking at properties for what I hope will be my next home. This search has reminded me of a powerful concept I wish I'd known during my years practicing law and starting my business: the ancient wisdom of duality.

When Life Feels Like a Struggle

For years, I approached my goals with pure force and effort. I thought the only way to create what I wanted was to muscle through, stay late at the office, and essentially tooth-and-nail my way to success. That's what I was taught, and I'm guessing many of you were too.

But what I didn't understand then was that I was completely out of balance. I was operating almost entirely from one energy — what ancient Chinese wisdom calls “yang” energy — the active, driving, masculine force of doing and achieving.

Meanwhile, I was neglecting the equally important “yin” energy — the receptive, intuitive, feminine force of being and allowing.

This imbalance made everything feel hard. I didn't realize I could create what I wanted in a way that felt aligned and in flow, rather than constant struggle.

The Ancient Wisdom of Duality

If you look into ancient texts from various traditions, you'll find this concept of duality everywhere:

• Yin and yang
• Dark and light
• Hard and soft
• Masculine and feminine

This duality is integral to our existence in the world. But we often lose sight of it because we're caught up in the tangible, three-dimensional day-to-day of our lives — running from appointment to appointment, feeling rushed, and never really touching base internally.

Most of us are incredibly out of balance. I certainly was for years! I didn't know I was out of alignment. I just thought I was doing things wrong, that I was wrong. I judged myself and felt bad about myself.

What I needed to learn was that embracing both parts of myself was key — the “yang” action-taker and high-achiever, and the “yin” receiver who could trust, accept, and allow.

Duality in Your Law Practice

Let's talk about how this shows up in your practice and why it matters.

Many lawyers believe they need to feel certain all the time. You're supposed to feel confident all the time. You're supposed to feel joy, happiness, and energy all the time.

That would be like living in the light all the time. Any time you experience doubt, fear, or judgment, you mark it as wrong or bad.

But that's not true at all. In fact, those “darker” emotions are the yang we need to look at and embrace. We need both. We need the contrast.

Here's an example: If you're trying to make your billable hours this week and you don't, you might immediately judge yourself:

“I'm so bad at this.” “What kind of lawyer am I?” “I'll never get ahead.”

You're in total darkness, full of judgment.

But what if instead, you could shine a little light of compassion on this experience? What if you could bring yourself back into wholeness by asking:

“What is this experience telling me?” “Do I need a better system?” “Do I need help?”

The experience is trying to tell you something, but when you're caught up in judgment, you can't get curious. You can't come back into alignment.

The Physical and Spiritual Duality

This concept of duality extends beyond our emotions. If you've ever had an experience you couldn't explain — a prophetic dream, a moment of unexpected knowing, a connection with someone at a distance — these experiences point to the larger duality of our existence.

We are not just physical beings having physical experiences. We are energetic beings having a human experience.

Science is even beginning to explore these concepts. Physicists like Brian Cox discuss theories about multiverses and wormholes that might explain phenomena we once dismissed as coincidence or imagination.

So what does this mean for creating the life you want?

If you are a duality — a physical being having a spiritual experience — then you have two parts. One part is grounded in physical reality, and one part is connected to something infinite and beyond this 3D experience.

How to Create What You Want Through Balance

When you begin to align your three-dimensional action-taking self (the yang) with your higher self and intuition (the yin), you can create with more ease.

Think about it: Are you creating solely in the 3D physical realm (lifting boxes, making calls, moving files) with no connection to your inner wisdom? Or are you all in the yin energy — just dreaming and considering possibilities without taking action?

Or are you balanced?

For me, moving to Sedona is a perfect example. My higher self knew this was where I needed to be. I balanced that knowing with practical actions — but not in a way where I was so stressed and overwhelmed that I couldn't accomplish my other goals. It took balance and practice.

One thing I work on with my clients is practicing their connection with how they feel. This is incredibly foreign to us lawyers! But that feeling in your body is a signal.

When you feel stressed, pressured, overwhelmed, or angry, that's a signal about your alignment with your higher self. It's telling you there's a misalignment.

As Abraham Hicks explains it: anytime you feel anything that's not love — anger, annoyance, frustration, fear — you're out of alignment with your higher self.

The Interior-Exterior Duality

Another form of duality is the interior part of ourselves versus the exterior. It's easy to become engrossed in the exterior — the things in our office, the people around us, the consumer culture — and ignore our interior life.

We spend very little time connecting with the part of us that comes from nature, that feels peace when we go outdoors, that experiences awe when we look at the stars.

Until we balance this duality, everything becomes a struggle. Balancing requires you to “know thyself” — but very few of us truly know ourselves.

Making Friends With the Quiet Part of You

What I want to offer you today is to begin making friends with the quiet part of you. Begin to slow down internally.

That can feel scary. That's okay. The fear is not a signal to stop. The doubt is not a signal that you're on the wrong path.

What's required is that you make friends with these feelings and sit with yourself anyway. This is why it's so scary for people to meditate or sit quietly without scrolling their phone — they're afraid they're doing it wrong or that their thoughts are wrong.

But that's exactly what's supposed to happen. Part of quiet contemplation is learning about yourself, how your mind works, where it goes, and what you're actually thinking and feeling.

You can never connect with that if you let fear drive you.

Your Next Steps

If life feels like a struggle — if creating what you want feels hard — I invite you to work with me. This is the work I do with my clients: helping them align with what they want and balance themselves so they can have it with ease.

Whether you want to make money simpler in your practice or find peace with time, we're balancing the yin and yang energies. You're learning the skill of being with yourself and knowing yourself on a deeper level.

This work combines scientific method with ancient wisdom. It's about reconnecting with yourself, loving yourself more deeply, and creating the life you want while feeling good, not stressed and struggling.

I encourage you to book a strategy session with me at dinacataldo.com/strategysession. We'll talk about where you are now, where you want to be, and how we can work together to help you get there with balance and ease.

Remember, when you align both parts of yourself — the doer and the receiver, the physical and the spiritual — creation becomes less of a struggle and more of a joyful unfolding.

💖

Dina