Photo by Carl Newton on Unsplash
Balance seems to be elusive. The more we strive for it, the less we seem to have. Entrepreneurs, in particular, worry about balancing work and family life, marketing and producing, new business and existing clients. Taking a wider view, what about exercise and rest, discipline and going with the flow, delayed gratification and savouring the present?
Think about balance, and the chances are you will discover more and more areas of your life – both professional and personal – that fall short of perfect equilibrium.
Practising yoga yesterday, I received a great lesson on balance. The theme of the practice was focus (I use the Yoga with Adriene videos on YouTube) and at one point I was wobbling on one foot in eagle pose. I followed instructions to focus on a point. As I held my focus on a space between the beams on my wall, I continued to wobble but I held the balance as long as I needed to. It didn’t feel comfortable or perfect but it worked.
From this moment of not thinking, of practising physical balance, this is what I learned:
- When we feel the need to balance things, focussing on all the stuff we need to balance results in overwhelm and an increased sense of imbalance.
- It may not feel right, but focussing somewhere else can allow all the stuff to fall naturally into balance.
- Wobbling is natural. Watch a tight rope walker and you will see they wobble constantly. This is the body’s way of maintaining balance. Balance requires constant movement and adjustment; let it happen. Trying to control everything too tightly can result in disaster!
- Balance does not necessarily feel good. Remember the illusion of the swan, serenely gliding on the water but paddling like mad underneath. If we think that being balanced will feel calm and serene all the time, we may not realise that we are doing a pretty good job of it already. Paddling furiously, but staying afloat.
- Like any skill, balance improves with practice.
Bonus point: I am reminded of my Mind Calm meditation teaching days, when I taught my students how to focus on space. Placing our attention on the space between stuff, rather than on the stuff itself, is instantly calming. This works with the physical world we observe around us and also with our abstract thoughts.
So, when I am busy, managing different roles and projects and feeling the need to create balance, if I shift my focus to the empty space between all the stuff, somehow there is balance. My mind calms down and overwhelm disappears.
I continue to wobble through my yoga practice and during my working day. I remind myself that wobbling is natural and even necessary. I stop trying to create perfect balance and shift my focus. I look back and find that things were much more harmonious than I thought at the time.
