Week 11

A Year of Mindfulness: 52 Weeks of Focus

Okay, so this week is pretty big . . .

Balance

The word doesn’t even look like it’s spelled right when sitting all alone. Look at it for a while. Does it look funny to you? It does to me. Just like everything – we understand our lives in context to other things. Balance is all about that.

I don’t think I’m alone when I say that BALANCE is what I seek most in life. Am I? Anytime I put too much effort into one area of life, many other things suffer. It seems to hold true for everything – relationships, health (physical and mental), work, play.

Yoga teaches us about balance. On the mat, we pay attention to effort and ease – known as sthira (effort) and sukha (ease). This play between the two is often referred to as finding our edge. Push yourself to go further in practice, but pay attention to finding a restful state in any difficult pose. Yoga is the ultimate mindfulness practice. Off the mat, we seek balance because we know it feels good. Everything feels right in the world when we live full, balanced lives. We are multi-faceted beings and we see many things as important – work, play, family, leisure, exercise, health, spirituality. There are so many sides to us.

A word about seeking balance in my own life: I’ve been an avid walker (5 to 6 days per week, 4 miles per day) for about three years. Recently I started running and am now training for a 5k. Because of significant joint pain (possibly my body telling me to seek balance?), it occurred to me that I should cross-train, so I also started swimming and rollerblading (again). I love both of these activities and used to participate in each regularly in my younger years. These new activities make me question my routine and seek balance to keep things fresh and fun, while also enjoying each activity in which I’m participating. I prefer swimming and rollerblading both over running, but I’m training for a running event – inherent balance prevails as I stay on course, running 3 days per week to be ready for the race. Other questions I ponder: When should I push myself? When should I relax and enjoy a restorative yoga practice? When should I do nothing? (The last one is hard – my competitive nature pushes me more often than it lets me rest.)

What’s interesting is that I created a new page called Balance just last week (not even realizing I would be writing about this topic here). I created it to chronicle these new adventures and also to keep myself aware of balance – or imbalance – in all of my life. I feel as though I’m in a beautiful peak right now. I love my work, have time to spend with family and do the things I want to do! For this I am truly grateful!

As YOU continue in YOUR mindfulness practice this week, think about your balance – or lack thereof, both on the mat and off. Is your practice balanced? Do you push yourself too much, or do you chill when you should be pushing? What about other areas of life? Do you work hard so you can play hard? Is work consuming you? Do you have too much free time? Life is all about balance – and mindfulness is key!

Please continue to connect here and on Twitter (#mindful52). I’ll be sending loving, good thoughts your way for a week of balance – which hopefully continues throughout the rest of the year!

One last thought: For full mind-body balance, be sure to never stop learning; there are online courses available for every interest and subject.

image: pinterest