What's balance?

It's a good time to think about this as we move into seasonal change, the holidays, and the last quarter of 2022.

This summer, I was back and forth a lot between Chicago and Michigan. There’s a one-hour time difference between them, and aside from making sure that I was getting on my calls at the right time, I found myself asking, is it time to eat? Should I wake up? 4:30 eastern is 3:30 central, and I was naturally opening my eyes at 4:30 eastern while in MI. Do I go off of Chicago or Michigan time? In the end, another Chicagoan, also with us in Michigan, thought it best to go with whichever we most wanted to go with at each moment. Ha!

We do that with a lot of things. 

We’re encouraged to seize opportunities, stay open, and flexible, and the push is to say YES to what comes our way.  But in order to delve deep into, and get intimate with, what we value most, we’ll need to say NO to things. While this requires discernment, it’s tempting to go with what’s most convenient, comfortable, and makes the least amount of waves, in the moment. 

Rigidity is limiting and so is moving-with-the-wind-no-specific plans kind of flexibility. While we tend to identify with one or the other, we’re not consistent. For instance, we can get rigid about our flexibility because we identify so strongly with who we are and what we do and don’t do.   

Healthy boundaries are good. But when does it become hiding? Is uncomfortable an automatic cue to 'practice healthy boundaries'? What does balance feel like to you?

Have you noticed sometimes that we perceive others as either brilliant or dumb based not so much on what they did but how we feel about the outcome of their actions? Instead of saying, oh wow, that was a bold move; not sure I would have done that, or that feels completely reckless regardless of outcome, we’ll say that was either really dumb or brilliant, let's see what happens. We wait to see how that turns out or we flip based on outcome. We internalize this and affect our own balance.

Is there such a thing as well-rounded? Or is it another word for jack-of-all-trades?

None of this is binary. I just think it’s good to know that on a subconscious level we often argue and take action as if it is. 

Check in.

Close your eyes. Still the mind. 

Perhaps balance means to feel like you’re not going to fall over. Sometimes it means to slow down and let go of a few things. Sometimes it means to do something that scares the crap out of you because you’re falling apart from not doing them. What stories and judgments are messing up your balance?

Habits don't care about balance. But the right habits do create the right balance.  

Only you know what your balance is. It won't come from your mind though. It will come from your sense of balance (wellness). So check in, you brilliant soul you.

Love, Savitree