The Mysteries of Balance

A harmonious life is a life of balance. Harmony and balance are feelings, not things! All feelings are experiences belonging to an individual in momentary experiences. However, following our feelings and engaging in objective and compassionate perspective on our lives, our goals and our difficulties, we can design, establish and celebrate our own balanced lives.

Here a couple of insights to help you find greater, more creative balance in your life, practically, emotionally, and spiritually.

The Static Balance and the Dynamic Balance

I was friends with a man who wrote an engineering textbook on statics and dynamics. Statics are the things that are not active and never change and dynamics are the things that are always active and changing. It helps to think like an engineer when you are working on balancing your life. Categorizing the elements of your life into statics and dynamics is a first step to designing and building a balanced life.

I have an affinity for dynamics. I naturally bring change and activity into my life. (Writing this is giving me a whole new perspective on ADD/ADHD). I do not have a very conscious or comfortable relationship with most things static. Before I can create a balanced life I need to begin a new relationship to statics and dynamics. I need to learn to limit my indulgence and attention to the dynamic elements of my life and overcome my reluctance to be conscious of and appreciate the static elements. I then need to fit the static elements together with the dynamic ones in a way that works for me, for my goals for living a richly balanced life.

Equilibrium

Being balanced may require us to be out of balance or rather off center. Balance is not about equal parts, it is about equilibrium.

Balance comes from right relationship and right measure. As I write, Julia and Julie is a very popular new movie. It is a film about recipes and great food. Julia Child was a great cook because she worked and worked on balance - finding the right ingredients in the right measure in the right combination and cooked rightly. Julia felt wonderful when she sat down after cooking and surrendered to the joy of her meal. She was an engineer, a manager and an artist in the kitchen as she balanced her life as a cook.

Does your life have the right ingredients in the right measure? Do you combine them well? Do you know you know how the right temperature and the right cooking time to bring the flavors of your harmonious life to elegant expression? What is your recipe for a balanced life? My teleseminar will help the participants determine their own recipe - Mastering the Art of Balanced Living. ;-)

The Space Between

Another aspect of balance I want to share with you is the notion of “between.” Many of our questions of balance come from our experience of “between.” Between has a number of definitions. The definition I use here is the sense of conflict, of being pulled by two opposing realities. Living gracefully “between,” feeling a confidence of self while confronting the conflicts is something toward which you aspire and strive.

Harmony is an inner peace you feel in the space between.

between how you want to live and how you actually live.

between how you want your space to be and how your space actually is.

between what you want to accomplish and what you actually accomplish

between all you want to do and how much time you actually have to do it.

between all the attention you want to give to others and all the attention you want to give to yourself.

between all the things that you want and need and the money you have.

between your need law and order and your need for freedom and creative chaos.

In “the space between” you make most of your decisions and choices. In “the space between” you find the mood of your life. In this sacred space of balance you can tell your truth.

My Balanced Life

Do I have balance and harmony in my life? Yes! No! I have some balance and the feelings of harmony are growing as I examine my personal dynamics of balance. It’s an evolving process. Life is about increasing the simplicity of managing my increasing complexity - a balancing act, not a juggling act. I know that I am increasing my mastery of balance. Balance has become less of a high wire act and more of my feet moving gracefully along a winding path that sometimes takes me to cliffsides, battered with gale force winds. I haven’t fallen yet. In fact I don’t anxiously cling to soothing supports anymore. I feel my feet on the ground, my head upright, and my heart open.


If you were to create a dynamic design for a balanced life specific to your style, needs and quirks, where would you begin?




Join me and be one of twelve participants in an intense and intimate exploration into the mysteries of balance, please sign up here.

Defining and Finding Balance

The Mysteries and Questions of Balance

Late summer, as the crispness of autumn air begins to energize us, we find the cosmic forces supporting our souls in the organization of our lives. This is the time of year to contemplate balance.

How balanced is your life? How balanced would you like it to be? What is a balanced life anyway?“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.”
Thomas Merton

Balance is a mystery. Is it about feeling harmony (such a sweet word, but a word that has little reality beyond a wish in today’s crazy demanding times)? Is it about maintaining emotional equanimity - not getting too high or too low? Or is it about not falling off the tightrope of life? Is it about having a keystone that holds everything together and upright? Maybe it is about symmetry or equality. What is balance?

Balance and Babies

We might learn about balance if we look at how we develop physical balance in our first year of life.

Balance begins with our eyes. Both eyes need to work together for proper vision. We learn to focus. Balanced vision!

Our next miracle of balance is the ability to balance our heavy little heads on top of our spines. Here we gain the ability to look up to the heavens, down to the earth and straight ahead without having our skull waver and shake. We learn to move our head from side to side, look around and come back to center. A balanced head!

Then we learn to balance on our sitz bones and sit up. This balance makes it possible to use our arms and hands. We reach out to what we want. We can push away what we don’t want. Balanced desires and the ability to accept and reject!

Finally, we stand upright on our heels balancing our body so that we can move about the world, follow a path, reach our destination. A core sense of self and the ability to stand in the vertiginous world!

Balance is about focus, observation and midpoint. Balance is about being clear about what we want and don’t want. Balance is about walking our path.

Do you have trouble focusing? Can you observe your life with compassion and integrity? Do you have a strong sense of your own center?

How much stuff clutters your life because you can’t say no or let go? How much have you missed because you couldn’t grasp the truth of your desires?

What would make it easier to stay committed to your path? Your path of joy? of contribution? of health?

Establishing and maintaining balance is an endless exercise of grace. You need to have deep even breathing, a focal point, a center of gravity, and a straight spine that keeps you upright as you speed through the constantly changing and landscape of your life.

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Explore Your Life's Balance Teleseminar

Join the Mysteries and Questions of Balance Teleseminar - four 90 minute sessions that will bring new meaning and new capacity to balance in your life.

7:30 PM - 9:00PM Eastern
Mondays
August 31, September 14, 21, 28 (skips Labor Day!)
Only 12 spaces available.

$120

Register for the Balance Teleseminar here.