In my classes at the moment I am focusing on balance, and although the exercises we have been doing are about the physical self and balance, the actual practice of the exercises then ripples through to our emotional self.
After all when we talk about a balanced life, we aren’t just applying this to standing on one leg, we apply the word balance to an equilibrium, a mental steadiness or emotional stability. Often if we are looking for balance in life, we work on developing a habit of calm behaviour, and judgement, together with a state of bodily equilibrium.
Firstly it is important to know that the human body is naturally unstable: think about the feet that give us a relatively small base for our height to keep us upright. Therefore maintaining an upright position and moving from place to place while staying balanced is a continual challenge for our bodies. So we practise our standing position creating a
wider base which helps our stability, gives a more equal distribution of weight through the whole body, and as a result works the body more evenly. We then perform physical movements which place a challenge on this base and so on and so on …. Introducing more muscles to help with stability and balance.
The physical practice on balance reflects perfectly for our emotional/mental self, our life balance. The base needs to feel stable so ensuring the foundations are in place, this might mean having a strong, supportive network around you, or it might be as simple as changing a specific behaviour that you are repeating but that isn’t helping you achieve a stable
base. For example saying ‘Yes’ to something or someone, when actually you really want to say ‘No’ because you are worried what people will think if you say ‘No’. Then it's about good practice, recognising how you are feeling with specific actions and behaviours, taking a moment and being curious about what is causing the imbalance. Likening it to a physical response, so you know if you are losing balance when standing on one leg, you might think about what you can do to improve it, you
would check your core, you might initially need something to hold onto, knowing that the more you practise the less likely you will need this prop.
That's exactly the same for a mental balance if something is throwing you off, affecting your thoughts, your actions you would ask what do I need to change to make this better, what do I need to practise, do I need to find extra help to lean on at this time? Then practise the things that will make a change and lead to better life balance.
Our success depends on the well-being and integration of many different systems within our minds and bodies, but by working on one it will affect the other and ‘balance’ will start to improve in all aspects of your health.
