Finding Balance in an Out of Balance World

One of the profound themes that emerged from my recent women’s retreat was just how subversive it can be to prioritize balance in one’s life.

Try as we might, many of our learning institutions and work cultures just aren’t set up to support a life that reflects the yogic view of harmony and equilibrium.

To champion balance, therefore, can feel like fighting an uphill battle. It requires us to carve out spaces where productivity harmonizes with rest, and where the pursuit of external accomplishments finds balance with the richness of our inner lives.

Perhaps the wisdom of the body can teach us about what it means to create balance in an out of balance world.

Even the sturdiest looking Tree pose - when you really pay attention - is a balance that’s constantly in flux. It’s a dance of perpetual adaptation as the body responds to each sway and wobble.  

On a grander scale, the processes of homeostasis - the body’s self-regulating mechanisms - are always adjusting and adapting to changing conditions to maintain a stable inner environment that supports life.

The body teaches us that balance isn’t a fixed state but a dynamic process, a dance we engage in response to the discordant rhythms of life.

To find balance, we must also know what it is to be out of balance. In a sense, then, we're never really in balance, but always course-correcting - ever seeking, ever responding, and ever restoring equilibrium.

We come to see that balance doesn’t need to be a unattainable ideal. Rather, it can be a guiding light on the journey toward wholeness, one that guides us to foster equilibrium and well-being in a world askew.