Balancing Act

"Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes.  If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed.  Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings."

~ Rumi

Family.  Friends.  Work.  Relationships.  Passions.  Spirituality.  Health.  These are just some of the balls we have in the air that require constant juggling.

Thomas Morton wrote that happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony.  Thomas had a good point.  While life often feels like a juggling act, transitioning it to more of a balancing act is where we find the most satisfaction.  We feel the greatest level of contentment, fulfillment, confidence and success when we have have prioritized the various "balls" into perfect balance, allowing for more smooth, steady, effortless juggling.

It has been said that the major work of the world has not been done by people who are brilliant but, rather, by ordinary folks who have an incredible amount of balance in their lives, which allows them to work in extraordinary ways.  Imagine if every arena of your life was in harmony with the others, how productive you might be, or how much more you could focus on an issue at hand if you could do so knowing that everything else was running like a well-oiled machine, integrity in tact, and, therefore, did not require your constant attention.  With balance, comes peace, and with peace comes a greater ability to handle whatever comes our way with with grace, non-reactivity, and a better understanding of ourselves.

It sounds great in theory, but how do we put it into practice?

We begin by recognizing what's truly important.  This varies for each one of us, of course, but carefully consider that which matters most and focus upon it.  The things that are essential are glass balls... the balls which, when dropped, might crack, chip, or even shatter.  Therefore, there is great risk involved in ignoring them or treating them carelessly.  The other balls are made of rubber.  If you drop them, they will bounce back into rotation sooner or later with little effort on your part to retrieve them.

Once we prioritize, we have to examine the nuances of our juggling stance so that we can dig in, stay balanced, steady, while keeping the balls in the air, moving them from one place to the next with a fluid, deliberate rhythm.

We must give ourselves permission to fall out of sync at times because, inevitably, a ball or two will drop... life happens and we have to be prepared for the shakiness of the unknown.  It takes determination and practice to regroup and begin anew this precious act of balance, but in doing so, we  learn from our mistakes, become stronger as a result, and have a greater ability to keep moving forward.

And so it seems that finding balance in our every day lives is very much like yoga.  Find a focal point.  Explore the subtleties of the pose.  Recognize that we will, indeed, wobble.   Eventually, though, as we continue to practice, we will learn to find stillness, and when we do, we'll be more grounded than ever before.

Namaste.

                                                                                Balance Playlist