Opposing forces…

Most everything I know in life and in nature has an opposite. Day has night. Dark has light. Hot has cold. Male has female. These opposing forces can create balance when applied with the same amount of force on each side. Have you ever felt off-balanced or out of sorts? Most people have. What does balance look like?

One can think of balance as being in a place where it is neither hot nor cold. It is warm and comfortable; it is purple, orange or green; it is maybe; it is something in between the extremes. Balance is about being in the middle. Visualize a circus performer balancing on a tight-rope and walking slowly and deliberately. That is one way of looking at balance.

A great example is learning to ice skate or roller blade. You want to balance on your skates. You do this by using opposing forces. If you feel you are going to fall to the right, you pull your body to the left.

How can balance be applied to one’s life or how can one get balance in his or her life? Awareness is the first step to achieving balance. Stop, look and reflect and see what might be causing the imbalance. An unexpected event can cause imbalance in one’s life, such as, a car accident or losing one’s job. How does one cope with life-altering events? Change your focus from the life-altering situation and look at the big picture. How?

The best way to change your focus and get back into balance is to ask a few questions: What is the lesson in all of this? What is the positive side in this situation? Where is the opportunity in this situation? How can I bless it and move back to a place of equilibrium? And, what can I laugh about this situation in my life? 

Seeing a negative situation from different perspectives can help one achieve balance. Talk to yourself as if you were looking at yourself as another person, in other words, try to be fair and objective. Balance can be achieved when people address themselves with their given names. Take for instance a person is laid off from his or her job. Self-dialogue could look something like this: (The person’s name is Joe or Mary.) “Hey, Joe/Mary, yes life is less than perfect right now, but look at the blessings in the situation… it is a blessing to meet new people and explore different fields, it is an opportunity to learn something new, it is a chance to see things differently; yes, it hurts right now, but now different choices and decisions can be made about the future…”

One of the best things an individual can do to get from a place of imbalance to balance is to do something opposite from he or she would normally do. If one is traditionally very independent and almost never communicates his or her challenges to others, then, perhaps it is due time for this person to seek guidance from an expert or counselor. If one continues to do what he or she have always done, then he or she will continue to get what he or she have always gotten (a quote adopted from Anthony Robbins and edited by Dr. Angela Kowitz Orobko). Here is an amusing thought that Albert Einstein shared, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Does this suggest many people are insane? Perhaps. 

Consider this, how can people shift their thoughts and emotions toward balance? How can one use opposing forces in his or her life? How might it feel?

Related articles

• Finding Balance (katewoodauthor.wordpress.com)