Practice Balance

Balance is important in our lives.  It is the path of moderation.  We need stillness and we need activity; we need seriousness and we need silliness; we need quiet and we need sound; we need meditation and we need exercise; we need happiness and we need sadness; we need company and we need solitude.  Honoring both sides of the teeter totter, we place weight on both sides, and certain that the sturdy center of centeredness supports both sides, we experience both sides.  Each lifts and lowers the other; each depends on the other for its existence.  Remove one and the teeter totter no longer works. 

 

It is the same with us.  We need both.  When we rely to heavily on one, then we are stuck on the ground; we no longer have movement; we no longer have the ability to elevate ourselves; to rise above the situation. 

 

So pay attention to balance in your life.  Get a little of everything.  Rely solely on no one thing.  Practice balancing.  If it helps, practice physically balancing yourself. Stand on one leg. Remain still with your body. Count to ten. Then switch legs and do it on that side. Think not only of balance but the fact that you alternate between legs. Do this three times. Breathe as you do it. Be in the moment as you do it.  Do it every day.  Both yoga and tai chi practice balancing on one leg, as does sitting meditation, balancing on the tripod of your two knees on the floor and your butt on the meditation cushion.  Do this everyday.  Let this physical balancing practice flow over into your mental and emotional balancing.  Make balancing a priority in your life by making it a practice in your life and soon you will find you are feeling, thinking, saying, and doing differently.  You sense harmony, peace, equilibrium, and equanimity.