eXtreme Balance

Balance is an intriguing concept to me. I’m always desiring balance, always intending to be balanced, but sometimes my quest for balance is unbalanced. It’s an interesting paradox to seek balance to the point of creating tension in ones life in an effort to reach it.

For example, I am an introvert. I love people and interacting with people, but it takes energy from me. So I need down time, time away from people, to recover my energies. My family, interestingly enough, is comprised primarily of people. People who need me, people who love me, people who want me around. So you have a man that’s seeking balance between work, family and recovery time. My effort to squeeze 30 hours of activity into a 24 hour day often leaves me spent and frayed.  If I give all the time to all the people in my life that request/demand my time, I’m left with little for myself. I end up getting cranky and overstimulated because I haven’t taken the time I need to regroup on my own. Conversely, if I take all the time I need for myself and my job, my family starts to miss me and it negatively impacts their well being (I miss them too).

It’s interesting when you consider the idea of balance. Balance is frequently pictured as a seesaw. The implication is that you have two things to balance against each other. You must seek the right position of the objects on each side based on their weight. Or deal with objects of equal weight. But the reality of life is that you’re dealing with a very complex system.

I’ve already described three things I’m trying to balance together. For something like that you’d need a disc or maybe a plate on a stick.

What if the balance I seek requires additional dynamic motion?

If you’re trying to balance a plate on a stick, it simply falls if when you just set it there. To help a plate balance you have to spin it. This motion causes the system to stabilize and the plate will balance… However this is where my analogy starts to fall over. Because when you spin the plate, everything on the plate will fly off.

Hmmm, maybe that’s good too. Maybe the act of spinning your balance plate, is really what you need to clear away the clutter. Anything that sticks on the plate is important and the things that fly off aren’t as important as they first appeared.

Maybe a good spin is what my life needs to shake off the debris and help me focus on what’s really left on my plate that matters. Maybe I’ve been focused too much on the clutter.

Of course this is only an analogy. The reality of my life is far more complex. And analogies are only powerful when you can tie them in to practical meanings. This gives the analogy the power to transform and open eyes to situations that were too difficult to see past, because they were not clearly understood.

So this leads me to my next natural question. How do I spin my life?

How do you spin your life?

I’d love to hear from you with your ideas.

Namaste,

Kevin