Blessed are the Balanced

Affirmation:  I am fully aware of the importance of maintaining a healthy balance.

Balance is another gift of yoga.  There are the obvious asanas that offer the yogi the opportunity to practice balancing: head stand, dancer's pose, warrior III and the classic tree pose to name a few but unless one is lying on his or her back or stomach, balance is always involved in a pose, just like in life.  We then have the opportunity of taking our balancing practice with us out into our day and into our world.  What does it mean to balance?  Is one ever balanced or is there only the practice of balancing? 

Recently, I have taken on caring for a loved one.  The care requires much more effort than was required or desired in the past.  I've spent a great deal of time at the hospital, the rehab and on the phone or the email connecting with caretakers, family and friends.  I'm happy to do it.  I love her and am pleased to have the opportunity to do whatever is necessary to be of service but life has been extremely full.  I now have the additional activities required for this care-taking and my normal full life.  When I was guided to do tree pose in a recent yoga class, I immediately placed all my weight on my right foot, the soul of my left foot against my inner thigh and chose one spot on which to focus.  I then put my hands over my head and became a tree.  I've done this hundreds, maybe thousands of times.  I was then guided to switch sides.  I couldn't do it.  My left leg would not hold my weight on its own.  I needed help.  I went to the wall in order to maintain my balance.  The imbalance of my life at the present time was reflected in my yoga practice.  I was stunned that the imbalance in my daily life was so glaringly presented to me in my pose.  I didn't feel too worried about it because I recognized that while I was out of balance at the moment, I was now fully aware of it and I needed to attend to whatever it would take to help me level out.

There are all kinds of balance: work and play, self-care and community service, calories in versus calories out, time alone and time with others, spending and saving money, exercise and rest.  The list can go on and on.  I'm sure you can think of a few, perhaps some on which you've been working.  One challenging part of achieving balance is it's so personal. What is good for one person may not be true for another.  Like any life skill one is trying to improve upon, the very first step is awareness, actually recognizing when you're out of sync.  Another factor is the time frame it's placed within.  Are we looking to be in balance every moment, every day, once a week or are we content to look over the whole year and think something like, "I worked hard for most of the year and now I'm going to take it easy for the end of the year."?  

The truth is it's no different than dieting.  First we need a focus point, perhaps that's a specific weight we are trying to maintain.  Every day we make choices and each choice will lead to a better balanced life.  When we are watching our calories you can have a heavier day one day and a lighter one the next day to balance out your intake or perhaps you are fairly conscientious during the week and that allows you to eat a little heavier on the weekend.  If we take it one step further, perhaps you're fairly restrictive most of the year but let yourself relax while you're on vacation or at a celebration.  As long as you can maintain your healthy weight, it doesn't matter how you do it but you're going to have to balance out those calories or your weight will either climb up, or get too low.  It's no different with anything else to which you want to bring balance. 

Many years ago a very spiritual woman told me a story about her volunteer work.  She was determined to become more faithful and with that she decided to spend more time at her church and then that became even more time.  Finally, she was at the church all the time and her family and her work were falling apart.  She couldn't figure out what was wrong, if anything, because she was sure she was following the better path to God.  Before her world came crashing down upon her, the parish priest counseled her to look at the imbalance of her life.  She examined her priorities, made several changes and saved herself. The path to holiness requires that we attend not to just the spirit but to the mind and to the body.  That means the path to holiness requires balance or at least an ongoing attempt at balancing. 

In order to walk the tight rope of life, we must be vigilant and place one foot gingerly and mindfully in front of the other.  It takes practice.  It takes the lessons from the yoga mat and from wherever and from whomever we can learn them.  Perhaps with enough practice one will even be able to stand on one's head.  If not, perhaps at least on one foot at a time, or even just both feet without toppling over.  The following week I took some extra "me" time and when I returned to class I once again was able to become a tree, on the right side and, on the left side.