How many of us can say that we lead balanced lives? And what does it even look like anyway? For some that might be work hard, play hard. For others that means combining staying up late dancing with waking up early to meditate. For another group, that could simply mean singing in the shower on a busy day, having a the time to catch a breath, eating a delicious meal with family.
This craving for balance is something that a lot of my clients want to address. They want to feel like they’re honoring both their “doing” and their “being” in their daily lives. They don’t want to be oscillating between the mountains and valleys of emotion and are seeking out steadiness instead. The want the calm and peace that comes with living on purpose, in alignment with their values. They don’t want to feel like a balloon floating in the sky, untethered. I am also one of those people. My whole life I’ve been a light-switch, soaring to the highest highs and plummeting to the lowest lows. Some call me fiery, others passionate, and more often than not, temperamental or explosive. I have also craved the peace that comes from balance and often dream about being the kind of person that floats through their day, ritual after ritual.
The other day, I had a breakthrough while working with a client. What if I stopped looking at balance, the noun, and instead thought about balance, the verb? What if an equilibrium, where both sides of the scale are perfectly even, is impossible for me to attain? What if, instead, I simply sought out the act of balancing, moving from one extreme to the other, allowing the balance to tip this way and that? What if that my balance is actually the movement between these extremes, the continuous course correction and adaptation? Perhaps, my balance is less a cool spring day and more a heavy afternoon thunderstorm when the humidity is 100%. Maybe, that’s not such a bad place to be.