One should see the world, and see himself as a scale with an equal balance of good and evil. When he does one good deed the scale is tipped to the good – he and the world is saved. When he does one evil deed the scale is tipped to the bad – he and the world is destroyed.
~ Maimonides
People have different axes along which they find balance. Most people feel when they are in balance about many axes in their lives. The above quote is about feeling the moral balance, and leaning in the good direction. People can also feel balance, for example, in these parts of their lives:
- Physical
- Mental
- Emotional
- Adventure
- Alone-time
- Fun vs. Work
And in each case, people can lean towards the good direction of balance. For example, if you wanted to feel YOUR OWN VERSION OF BALANCE (and I think balance is very personal) in “Fun vs. Work,” then you might resonate well with these words:
Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
~ Robert Fulghum
If you wanted to keep your balance in the physical part of you, you might aim to get to the gym more, to eat more healthy foods. Different people have different needs for balance.
Today’s Question:
In which part of your life do you feel it is most important for you to have balance – and then after that, other things fall into place?
Specifically, your answer might be “stress balance” – when you have enough stress to keep you challenges but not too much so that you go nuts, that may be the optimal stress balance. It might be “alone-time balance,” a good balance between doing things on your won and with friends. Your answer might be “mental balance,” a good balance of being challenged mentally and being calm mentally. It might be “moral balance,” a good balance of making the correct and right decisions in your life.
For me, as long as I do good things physically, and as Maimonides said, “with the scale tipped to the good,” then the other parts of my life fall in line. Which balance is most important for you?!
And let’s end with some very important thoughts on balance! Especially as the temperature is going to be in the 30’s in the Northeast, in the U.S..
The balance of nature is reached when heating the house costs as much as going south for the winter.
~ James H. McGavran
A most thought provoking post. I find that I have to have at least two areas of my life in balnace. I divide my life into three areas-work, home and self. If I am out of balance in more than one of these areas, I’m in trouble. I seem to be able to cope with one problem area, but no more.
Great post! This is something I constantly struggle with, since I have some many things vying for dominance in my life, but I feel in the most balance when I exercise strenuoulsy daily and I eat clean. Everything else usually falls more or less into place.
Mood! Most definately, my moods seesaw through the week and it’s driving me batty (and everybody else around me). Oh! If only I could stay at that coveted middle ground. I’m with Matisse: “What I dream of is an art of balance.” But then again, this is what Jung says: “The word ‘happiness’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.”
Oh well, off to Rome for the week to bask in some art, am hoping to return relaxed, motivated and inspired!
I’m not sure I could say any one axis is the *most* important. I think several are really important. Why choose just one?
Maybe I have never been comfortable with balance, or have never learned to recognize it! But here’s what I think:
Social equilibrium comes to mind. In terms of people, that means having people doing things for me and me doing things for people. If that is working right, then a lot of things seem to fall into place. If there is an imbalance, like me doing too much and not getting a comparable level of input, then that’s bad. Likewise when I’m getting too much input and there’s not enough going out in return, that’s bad too.
Then there’s balancing the AMOUNT of all that activity with being productive, as in making things. I find there’s a balance between social time and “making things” time I need to keep, otherwise I feel out of balance and frustrated.
Then there’s the balance between thinking and doing. I tend to think more than I probably should, so making sure I’m doing things too is important.
Then there’s being inside my head and outside my head. It’s sort of related to the thinking thing…I have a tendency to be in my thoughts all the time and not really noticing the outside world, so I have to remind myself to experience things. This tends to be reduced if I have friends nearby, or am hanging out with people I like a lot.
There’s the balance between structure and adaptability. I tend to not be very structured, and am constantly trying to be better about it. I just need a little structure, maybe, but I’m not sure how much.
That’s what comes to mind…not quite sure what to make of it yet. Think I’ll sleep on it :-)