The Secret to Balance

As a junior in college, I studied abroad and kept up a blog of my travels. I titled it “Now Finding Balance.” Like I was about to leave my little bubble of life in college and learn all the secrets of the world and of life in six months.  

(Spoiler alert: I did not find those things.)  

Fast forward to 2021 and I still strive to live with balance, but I’m more aware now that “balance” is a verb, not a noun. We don’t find it, we practice it. We move towards and away from it, but it’s not something that we attain and just get to keep forever.  

It takes consistent recalibration and self study.  

It takes curiosity in asking the question, “where do I feel imbalanced?” rather than judgment.  

Most of all, it takes compassion towards ourselves. 

Just yesterday I was feeling like I was in a slump. Unmotivated, tired and unproductive. I felt most imbalanced in my mental headspace. I had been dedicating the majority of the day’s thoughts to overall negativity.  So I rolled out my mat and pulled up a playlist. I came into child’s pose. Every time a thought crept in that didn’t serve me in that moment, I took a louder breath in and out.

Child’s pose turned into a few rounds of sun salutations, which turned into making up a flow (one that I’ll probably record for members because it was a good one!).  

After I started to build some heat, I felt motivation kick in. I pulled together a quick workout –  just 15 minutes with a kettlebell – that had me sweating in no time.

Movement was and is the medicine.  I didn’t know where time on my mat would leave me but it was worth a shot to roll it out in the first place, and I’m so glad that I did. Things began to shift. I sat down to write this, and I tackled a project that was lingering.  

Tomorrow will be a new and different journey, but I’m choosing to stay curious – not judgmental – about it. The process of coming back home to ourselves is fascinating. When we can practice getting quiet to ask the questions like, “what do I need right now?” over time we can hear what our intelligent bodies and deeper internal wisdom are saying.  

It just takes time, consistency, and giving ourselves grace in the process.

You’ve got this, wherever you are. If you need a motivating playlist to help kickstart or restart your high vibrations, give this one a go.