BALANCE

I was thinking about how important balance is in our lives.  When we have it we are at ease and life flows freely.  When we lack it we frantically change things in an attempt to reestablish it.  Balance can be thought of as a set of scales.  On one scale we load all the pressures and challenges thrown our way each day.  On the other scale we load mechanisms to balance us against the weight of life.  Hunger on one side, food on the other.  Cold on one side, warmth on the other.  Stress on one side, calm on the other. Thinking about it this way it is easy to see how difficult it can be to balance these scales.  We will over eat to satisfy hunger. We are always putting things on or taking things off in search of the right temperature.  We often load more stress on the life scale than we can possibly balance with the counterweight of calm.  So if we can reduce the load on the  life scale perhaps there is a better chance of having what we want.  We know if we eat well, exercise and get the sleep we need we have a better chance of being in balance.  We also know it is much easier to feast, flounder and fiesta.  Stress is the biggest challenge of all.  Not enough money, never see the family, everyone else seems to be doing better than me, I should be doing more with my life, too much work not enough play, I am such a disappointment, no friends, no life, no time.  The usual responses of working harder, seeing less of the family, reinforcing judgements of self versus others and more creates a vicious circle.  There is something about the way we are designed that encourages us to overdo things in our efforts to find an equilibrium.  A thought I am playing with is that by reducing the weight on the life scale there is less counterweight needed and our chances of success thereby increase.  The most fundamental measure of your success is how well you are breathing.  Breathe well and you are a successful human being.  That's it.  Everything else is illusion.  Big houses, boats, cars, lavish entertainment and girlfriends will not bring you calm and peace in your life.  You will have periods of fun and elation but it is not the route to inner contentment and balance.  Maybe if you strip away everything and begin with the need for oxygen on the life scale and breathing as the counterweight some insight will arise.  I sit here under my Mimosa Tree and breathe and feel calm.  Try it.  You can then add back layer by layer of stress of your life today and ask 'do I really need it?'  If you do then load it up but give thought to how you can balance it.  If you conclude you don't need it but have to have it then explore this.  Do you?  Must you?  By the way I am talking to myself in this stream of thought.  Like anyone else I have overloaded my life with too much on the life scale in the last year and have not had enough counterweight to achieve balance.  So to many things my answer to 'do you?' and 'must you?' is 'no' and 'no'.  My challenge now is to remember my answers.