Becoming Whole: Making peace with the light and the dark

At Mind Key we believe are all whole and perfect, exactly the way we are. The only way to accept and make peace with this truth is by exploring the shadow side of ourselves and bringing it to light.

In our anthology, Yin and Yang: The Duality of Balance our healers, artists and writers share their insights and journeys into achieving wholeness via both the yin and yang sides of themselves and the world around them.

Let them inspire you on your own path of healing and happiness in the following reviews of their contributions to this beautiful, full color work of art:

Award-winning author, inspirational speaker and radiant life coach, Barbara Steingas, helps people find the pieces they need to solve their personal health puzzle through coaching services, talks, workshops, and her writing. Barbara's passion is helping others optimize their health and vitality.

accompanying image by Alma Carel

In her piece, Everything in Moderation, Barbara tells how she seesawed between healthy and unhealthy eating habits. This bouncing from one extreme to another became a determining factor in why she eventually developed Cohn's Disease, which affects the body's ability to digest and eliminate food. Her story speaks not only to women, but also to men who struggle with striking that balance between what is right for their bodies, and their emotional health. Without this crucial balance, everything suffers.

Poet, artist, and clothing designer, Ava M. Hu studied poetry and sculpture at St. Lawrence College. To Ava, there is a fine line between art and poetry, one a written metaphor, the other visual.

accompanying photo by JoAnna Schillaci

Ava's word choice is exquisite, and her poems elicit raw, and often nostalgic emotion from a few short lines of descriptive language—whether describing the relationship nature and god, and how it reveals itself in the "Secret Mantra" of love, or representing in ten very short lines how one can achieve all they desire through observing the space, time, and poetry between the stars, between molecules of water.

"Ava appreciates short concise thoughts and questions that inflame your brain," Yin and Yang editor and contributor, Charla Dury writes.

art by Elisabeth Ladwig

Elisabeth Ladwig, an award-winning conceptional photographer, believes "that life’s mysteries fall within the parameters of scientific explanation, that science abides by the Laws of Nature, and that nature is magical."

This belief is conveyed through her digitally composed photography, each piece with elements of nature and with an anonymous subject, offering a variety of metaphors for the miracles all around us, and for humankind’s relationship with the Earth and with the Cosmos.

“Anonymity allows the viewer to take part in writing the story,” Elisabeth says, “and that story is going to be different for everyone.”

photo by Charla Dury

Journalist, editor, columnist, poet and musician, Gene Myers, believes the connection between art and life is everything, so why separate music from poetry? Creating is his way of relating to his surroundings, and to others, more deeply. It's about communicating and sharing the real-life miracle of art.

"I only write when I think I have found something that is a worthy find, something to share with others. For me, that is the point, otherwise, why bother?"

Charla writes, "Gene makes you think. He brings every-day human interaction to the ethereal, describing succinctly the mood and emotion of the moment using poetry. In A God Who Is Still Making Up His Mind, Gene’s God sounds a lot like a father who is world weary or an overworked mother hoping for a 'me night'.”

Perhaps he is also speaking to the god-like-ness of parenthood, in which parents have the both grueling and fulfilling task of allowing their children free will while imposing upon them the rules of the universe.

Dr. Kevin Hall approaches both health and life from the understanding that there is “an accessible greater intelligence that we can tap into and draw from.”

photo by Danielle Rose

This intelligence offers a place to still our minds and hearts, Kevin said, so we can view our thoughts and emotions from a distance, creating a new perspective for how we feel and think. He shares this perspective with others through his words as well as his practice.

In Using Light by Night, Kevin talks about his struggle with life's curveballs. In his medical practice he encompasses a wide variety of modalities for health to create a wide-angle vision of what’s happening. So, this wide-angle applies in his essay as well.

“There are people that looked up at the starts and just saw stars, then there are those that looked up and saw constellations,” Kevin said. “I’m a constellation seer.”

art by Dana Bree

As an artist, Dana Bree believes that a connection to, and an opportunity to discover new things with like minded individuals, is essential to her health, happiness, and creative progress.

“This has also allowed me to move forward into metaphysical realms with healing and helping others as well as myself,” Dana said.

Dana's art has been inspired not only by her dreams, but by the inspiring life she has led

In The Master Juggler, Dana brings together bright and contrasting colors to create a feeling of expansiveness—as is seen through the cosmos peeking out the juggler's window—as well as perspective as he looks upon the Earth as it juggles between the cracked egg and the 8-ball. The combination of the three in suspension represent the fragile nature of our existence in the universe.

photo by Heather Taylor

Heather Taylor is a mom first, but she refuses to let motherhood define her solely, and is continually creating, whether photography, art, crafts or food.

In Heather's photo, Glisten Dichotomically, editor and Yin and Yang contributor Tamara Rokicki appreciates the yellow selection of the leaves, and writes that yellow expresses energy, joy and happiness, stressing the importance of positive vigor and contentment even throughout the coldest phases of our lives. Tamara is particularly struck by this message as we revel through autumn to prepare ourselves mentally and spiritually for winter by taking courage and inspiration from Mother Nature.


This photo is also Heather's son's graduation portrait, and it reflects Heather's passion for her family, who have inspire her to show the world the amazing gifts a family can bring and the legacy it can leave.

Other artists and writers to contribute to this beautiful work of art include

art by Jason Tirendi

• art by our digital editor, Jason Tirendi,
• photography by Stan Cohen,
• meditations by healer, Kathleen Santora,
• stories by psychic, Sarah Loukos,
• storyteller Rebecca Godina,
• writer Tamara Rokicki
• mixed media and poetry by artist and jeweler, Rachel Bertoni,
• writing and photography by editors Charla Dury and Danielle Rose
• Plus many more!

Read and view more by pre-ordering your copy of Yin and Yang: The Duality of Balance (CLICK HERE) today, and guarantee it in-hand with plenty of time for the holidays.


Or read the full reviews below:

The juggler of the world (Dana Bree)

How do you glisten? (Heather Taylor)

Using Light by Night (Kevin Hall)

Everything in Moderation (Barbara Steingas)

The power of simple words, images and art (Ava Hu)

What if God Were Still Making Up His Mind? (Gene Myers)

Behind the scenes: The Making of Yin and Yang (video)

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