The need to find balance operates in many areas of our lives: balance within our body, the food we eat, levels of activity and rest, thoughts and emotions, within relationships, and in our work and personal lives. Our ability to maintain physical balance is one of those daily things most of us take for granted. Physical balance involves a range of different sensory systems working together: our vision, proprioception, the awareness of where our body is at any moment, and the vestibular system in our inner ear. So, physical balance is something worth being grateful for.
There are times when we’re dominated by thoughts and other times by emotions. Both have their place. However, we respond more skilfully and make wiser decisions when we balance thinking and feeling. There’s also an internal balance within thoughts and emotions. Are our thoughts critical, limited, and negative, or creative, expanding, and positive? And are our emotions intense and overwhelming, or regulated and stable?
Our busy work and personal lives are often so full of activities it’s hard to maintain a sense of balance. When our work becomes unbalanced, we can end up neglecting our personal life. Although we can have fulfilling careers, we work to live, not the other way around. A poor work-life balance can damage our mental and physical health. The burden of working long hours for a sustained time can lead to stress, depression, and eventual burnout. Recent research found that the average family in the UK spends as little as 36 minutes a day in quality time. And around half of the people in the survey said that their work-life was out of balance.
Thomas Merton, the writer, monk, and social activist, said, “Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony.” To maintain balance means regularly taking stock of our needs and priorities. Stephen Covey, the educator and author suggested that “The key is not to prioritise what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” This includes taking care of ourselves by eating healthily, getting enough sleep, and taking regular exercise. Making the time to connect with family and friends and respecting the boundaries between the different areas of our lives are also important.
Life events will always come along that knock us off balance, but it’s up to us to notice and do our best to recover. Like standing on one leg, maintaining balance is a continuous activity of being aware of a sideways shift and responding skilfully to maintain balance. Cultivating mindfulness can help us maintain balance in several ways. Mindful awareness, skills, and attitudes have an innate and natural sense of balance at their core. This includes the balance of being calm and alert, which characterises a mindful state. A toy gyroscope maintains stability as it spins with energy, but then starts to wobble and lose balance as it slows down. In a similar way, when our calm and grounded energy drops, we’re more likely to lose balance.
Building awareness of the interconnected wholeness of mind, body, and emotions is also an important part of mindfulness practice. For instance, we may feel angry and notice the tension in our body as well as the stream of angry thoughts. They are all dimensions of the whole experience. Also, when we practise mindfulness meditation, we cultivate a still point of balance within ourselves, which we can return again and again as we respond skilfully to whatever arises during our day.
There are many areas of our lives that we need to balance. Developing mindfulness gives us space and awareness to notice when we’ve lost balance and the skills to bring things back to a stable centre. Ultimately, cultivating balance contributes to a healthier, happier, productive, and more fulfilled life.r lives that we need to balance. Developing mindfulness gives us space and awareness to notice when we’ve lost balance and the skills to bring things back to a stable centre. Ultimately, cultivating balance contributes to a healthier, happier, productive, and more fulfilled life.
Suggested weekly practice
- Notice when you feel a bit out of balance and use awareness of your body and breath to recover stability.
- Explore the balance between your thoughts and emotions. Do you sometimes act emotionally, without considering the options? Are there times you decide without checking how you feel?
- See if areas of your life are out of balance, and do what you can to recover balance, order, rhythm, and harmony.
Guided practice
Find somewhere undisturbed and sit in a comfortable, dignified and upright posture, where you can remain alert and aware. There are two guided practices for this session. You can close your eyes, or lower your gaze while the meditations play.
- Play the settling practice, then read through the session content, which you can print off if that helps.
- Then play the second practice to explore balance within the breath, discover areas that are out of balance, and find a still point of balance within yourself.
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