Why Founders Need More Yin

As founders, we’re taught that success comes from doing more.

Build. Network. Pitch. Launch. Raise. Scale.

We’re constantly moving from one goal to the next. The startup world rewards action, momentum and resilience. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, this is known as yang energy—masculine, active, outward-facing, driven.

Yang is essential. Without it, ideas never become reality. But there’s another side that rarely gets talked about.

Yin.

Yin is the energy of slowing down. Feminine, resting, reflecting, meditating, breathing and allowing your mind and body to recover. It’s quiet, restorative and often overlooked in a culture that celebrates being busy.

The irony is that the more ambitious we become, the more we need it. 

I learned this the hard way in my early thirties.

At the time, I was working full-time as a senior adviser, helping to plan a large community event for Rotary, serving as president of our council-owned art gallery where I was curating the largest art awards of the year, and also studying part-time at university. On paper, it looked like momentum. It looked like purpose. It even felt energising in the moment.

The events were successful but what I didn’t see coming was the cost. Once everything was over and the adrenaline faded, my body simply stopped. I fell into a deep state of exhaustion and depression. I couldn’t function the way I was used to. I spent two weeks in bed, not because I chose to rest, but because my body forced me to. 

That experience changed how I understand productivity, ambition and wellbeing.

For months, I’ve been building Evara—researching, writing, designing, networking and learning. I love every minute of it, but I also know that if I stay in constant “go mode,” eventually my body will make the decision for me.

Burnout isn’t simply feeling tired. It’s what happens when our nervous system spends too long in a heightened state of stress. We become reactive instead of thoughtful. Creativity fades. Decision-making becomes harder. Even the work we love can start to feel heavy.That’s why I’ve made Qigong part of my routine.

Qigong is an ancient Chinese practice that combines slow, mindful movement with breath and focused awareness. While it has been practiced for thousands of years, modern research is beginning to explain why it feels so effective. Studies suggest regular Qigong practice can help reduce stress, improve mood, support sleep and encourage a healthier balance between the sympathetic (“fight or flight”) and parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) nervous systems.

You don’t need to spend hours meditating on a mountain.Sometimes ten or twenty minutes of intentional movement is enough to remind your body that it is safe to slow down.

I’ve noticed something interesting: my best ideas rarely arrive when I’m staring at my laptop. They come while walking, practicing Qigong, sitting by the ocean or simply giving myself permission to pause.

Two years ago, I started teaching Qigong.

At first, it felt like another extension of my drive to do more—another way to share, contribute, and stay in motion. But over time, it became something different. Teaching began to slow me down in ways I didn’t expect. It required presence rather than performance. Listening rather than pushing. Embodying what I was speaking about, not just explaining it.

It quietly taught me yin.

Those moments aren’t taking me away from my work.They’re making me better at it. As founders, we often optimise our calendars, our products and our businesses. But how often do we optimise our own wellbeing?

The truth is, your business will only ever be as sustainable as the person building it. So keep building. Keep dreaming. Keep showing up. But don’t forget to step into your yin. Because rest isn’t the opposite of progress.

Ultimately, optimum health isn’t found in living entirely in yin or yang—it’s found in the balance between the two. Yang gives us the energy to create, lead and take action, while yin allows us to recover, restore and sustain that energy over time. When we honour both, we don’t just avoid burnout; we create the foundation for greater resilience, clarity and long-term wellbeing.