2013-06-01

Balance

It seems as I become older the challenge to remain even keel becomes more daunting. It’s difficult because nearly everything around us creates some form of heightened sensation.  High definition television is intended to appeal and heighten our visual sense, surround sound our auditory sense, varieties of sugar our palate, fragrance and perfumes our olfactory. The bombardment of sensationalized substances can create in us not natural habits but synthetic. These habits then become norms and as we go about the day we continue to strive for the next sensationalization.

These products that excite our senses are not intrinsically bad. But when you put the equation together, excitement + more excitement, the solution does not lead to balance but rather a series of highs and lows resembling cosign along an x,y axis. The more heightened the sense, the steeper the climb, and the more detrimental the fall. But you say life balancees out no matter what and you can’t control the steepness of the climb or fall. I say you can, or try to, and the choice is between riding a roller coaster or jacking up the incline on the treadmill.

One of the ways that balance is achieved is through physical exertion. Exhausting the physical body of energy mellows the mind and puts the body in a state of renewal and recovery that blood circulation is the catalyst of. The body is also purified through perspiration, ridding the body of toxins that further enables it to function more harmoniously. Yet there are other forms of exercise that impact the mind and spirit as well.

Just as exercise rids the body of impurities and puts the mind at ease, it is just as necessary to exercise one’s emotions, which takes a little more fortitude. I think this may actually be the hardest part of the body to exercise because in this day and age of emoticons and acronyms, emotions are at a premium. And not those generic “nice to see you” and “thanks” emotions. I am talking about the emotion felt when you connect with someone so well that you feel only a sense of goodness in the air and heart. Not just romantically but for any platonic relationship as well.

To reach these connections, however, impurities have to come out and feelings have to be shared. In the same way water is shed to filter out toxins, so to must we shed our “everyday” habits to reach the emotional toxins that block the gate of a more balanced and renewed self. It takes just as much grit and determination to reach that balanced emotional state, and the results make us feel better than a few pounds around the mid section.