The older I get the more important balance becomes. I have less room for over-indulgence in things that aren’t good for me simply because my body takes longer to recover from any badness. It’s a fact of life, but in many ways also a relief.
It is relatively easy to notice when my body isn’t happy because I’ve over-done sugar or carbs, haven’t had enough water or have been glued to the computer for too many hours. I have a headache, feel groggy and fogged in, am stiff from sitting too long in the same position. But what about emotional and spiritual balance? How do I recognize what’s going on there and do something about that?
I’ve learned that when I can’t sleep well or long enough, when I’m restless and on the run doing busy work that doesn’t need doing, fussing, fretting and generally out of sorts–something has upset my inner balance. Yes, sometimes it is only poor food choices, but I rarely make those if the rest of life approaches proper or reasonable balance.
Balance of course is not static, a do-it-once, and it’s set for the year. You might be able to ‘balance’ your stereo’s treble and base settings like that, or even your cheque book (once a year? is she nuts?) but your body and spirit need daily love.
I am a writer. When I don’t write, everything in my world is out of balance: food, exercise, work, sleep, emotions, everything. I’m not talking about taking time away from writing to cook, or visit with a friend. What I mean here is a time of stuckness, block, and fear that prevents me from writing or even thinking about writing.
Yet it often takes forever for the penny to drop, for the light bulb to go on, for me to ‘get it’. I’ll wander around in circles, complain a lot, get very little done in any area of my life, and yet I still don’t tweak to the fact that I’m not writing and that’s the problem.
Eventually I’ll corner myself and there’s nothing for it but to look at what’s really going on. Ah, I’m not writing, not even practice writing. Hmm. Maybe I should try practice writing, you know just scribble stuff that doesn’t matter. I’ve got nothing to lose at this point, so why not just show up at the page.
Sigh. Why does it take me so long to figure this out? If I figured it out sooner, life would maybe come back to something approaching balance. Yes, but then I’d have to face my fear and stuckness and truly, I don’t want to go there. This is a game I play, but it, like any bad indulgence is beginning to cause too much wear and tear on the system.
Practice writing for me starts here: three pages a day, every morning, first thing. Just writing, whatever comes from my pen (longhand writing is important here). This is Julia Cameron’s morning pages work, from The Artist’s Way. Whenever I truly engage with morning pages, stuff happens. Good stuff.
And balance slowly unfolds again in my life. Once again I have a writing life I can be happy about.
Why not try it yourself and see what I mean.
What do you notice? It may take a month or more to notice anything, but do let me know….