Staying balanced

Hey Mystic,

I’ve been sitting here in my little house thinking about the nature of the universe, reality, conscious thought and how energy moves. I was contemplating the idea of being balanced… and if it is really something that I am or am not. I read a lot and hear even more about how other people are either feeling out of balance or how to find more of it in their lives. There is tons of advice about how and where to get more of it and how to tell when you are out of it. Discussions about how the world lacks it and how our happiness depends on it. The thought that I settled on is that there is this natural flux and flow of kinetic and inert forces that seems to be in lockstep with the great breath of creation. Forever contracting and releasing. Building up energy and then letting it go.

I know we are always seeking balance. That is what we want, and moreover that’s what we are told we should continuously strive for. Like in some distant location there is this plateau where we come to rest and are content and totally satisfied, utterly balanced and completely centered.

In my minds eye I imagine that this place of total balance is pure white, glistening with boredom and drenched in doldrums. There would be the bland aroma of complacency hanging in the still perfectly unstimulating air. I imagine that the sounds of perfectly balanced land would be stunningly non existent, leaving you feeling absolutely, flaccidly meh. (yes I said flaccidly)

Doesn’t that just sound like the picture of bliss?

See, I think much of the time we are chasing something that literally cannot exist and be compatible with human life. When we seek balance, what we are actually asking for is predictability. We want to know that we will be able to maintain a certain feeling or state of being. A sort of anticipation of the expected leads nearly every action we make. Fact is… everything changes.

Now you heard my rant last month about everything changing all the time…

hold on to your doughnuts, I’m about to take you a little further.

So here is the reality of reality…. Or at least my perception of it anyway (disclaimer: which may change without notice.) Reality, is as you know all about duality. There are all the old trope examples of black and white, chocolate and vanilla or Stranger Things or Game of Throne. Ok that last one doesn’t count.

The point is, that’s the stuff that is easy to talk about, compare and understand. In any case there is a bigger discussion we need to have… collectively. I want to talk about the idea that maybe it isn’t so simple as just the obvious and stark contrasts. Maybe there is something bigger happening. Maybe, the concept of balancing these forces is in some ways a waste of time. Maybe there is less to balance and more to accept.

What? What the eff are you saying Alysa? Insert dramatic eye roll.

Ha! Glad you asked. So here’s what I mean.

The illusion is that things are out of balance. No, seriously think about it.

Everything has to be in balance in order to even exist. I think it was Nicola Tesla that said “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”

Take for example the act of walking. In order for locomotion to be possible we must disrupt balance. So taking the body from a state of apparent inertia into a state of imbalance creates walking. But the paradox lies in the fact that in order for the body to even walk it has to be balanced internally enough to know how to imbalance it’s respective parts in order to walk. All the muscles of your body are activated to shift and contract on one side and release tension on the other side. If your inner ear stops doing its job, which is detecting imbalances, you may not move or you may fall over. Either way the inner ear has to be in balance with your nervous system in order to facilitate walking.

A perfectly beating heart must alternately squeeze and release so that blood can travel in and out of its precious chambers. The Balancing happens automatically.

Ok so what about a heart attack? What about when I fall down? What about that Alysa, isn’t that a sign of imbalance? Huh?!

Um… yeah...no!

So here is where we depart Newtonian science and trip the light fantastic diving heart first into the nature of REALITY.

When something unexpected happens, or when a system fails, or when we sense there is something off… that my darling is not a symptom of an imbalance. Rather, that is a sign that something is shifting, morphing, evolving, developing or changing. Because even when something is uncomfortable it is still in balance. Pain is a perfect example for this. If you cut your finger and your brains pain sensors light up and you yell ouch! Dammit! You have to be in a state of balance to even experience any of those things. There are a million examples of things that I can show you where balance exists in a way you can easily agree with. But what about those things that defy an easy explanation? What about people who do terrible things? What about when the Earth’s climate is changing,? What about poverty, illness and crime? How are those things in balance with anything?

They aren’t. Those things pull us out of balance; but not without purpose.

Opposition, challenges, difficulties, hard lessons all pull us out of balance. And truthfully they are supposed to, they have to or we as human beings become stagnant and inert. Remember the comparison walking? Your body has to push/ pull itself out of balance in order for walking (localmotion) to even be a thing.

The paradox lies in the fact that we are never truly out of balance - nor are we ever truly in balance, we are perpetually in a state of being that is both and neither.

I’m sure there is some kind of fancy esoteric or metaphysical term for this… I have no idea what it might be. However, what I do know is that we should all be a little easier on ourselves and each other. We should all be way more understanding and compassionate when we are chasing something you can never catch…. Because you can’t catch what you already have. So next time you are feeling out of balance with things, or even yourself, maybe consider that you are actually not doing so bad… after all you have noticed that something is off… and in order to do that- something must be turned on and working correctly… you know, balanced.