KEEPING YOUR BALANCE SPIRITUALLY
(Photo by Casey-Horner on Unsplash)
Have you found it a challenge to keep your balance in a busy life? How can we find ways to stay right side up in an upside-down world?
To feel grounded and steady between productivity and stillness, between ‘doing’ and ‘being’?
Or strike a balance between thinking and doing? Between joy and sorrow? Between fast and slow, or shallow and deep.
BALANCE IN THE GYM
Up until the quarantine, I went to a gym class for seniors three times a week. About 50 folks, from a decade or two younger than I to a few who are two decades older. (It’s hard to find a photo of seniors exercising!)
(Photo by Bruce-Mars on Unsplash)
We gathered to walk, skip and stretch creaky bones to the sounds of the Beatles and Chubby Checker. In this arena, I, at 73, am truly “middle-aged!”
A local physical therapist (also ‘middle-aged’) created the class twenty years ago, and his focus is balance. I am sure it will resume eventually, and everyone will eagerly return.
Most participants can stand on one foot as they swing the other, raise hand weights over their heads, and sing along with the Eagles.
I and another person in the class who also has MS, experience balance a bit differently than most, although each person has unique challenges.
Because of a default in our sense of proprioception, we never know exactly where our body is in space. If I shut my eyes, I am apt to fall over standing still.
Several neurological conditions come with this particular glitch—but there are always workarounds.
My most frequent hack is to pin my eyes to a light beam on the floor from one of the gym’s overhead lights.
I focus on this one spot, and it acts almost like a tent peg as I challenge my body to follow the movements of the class.
Secondly, I move to the music at half speed, holding to my creed of “Slow wins the race.” (Check out “The Art of Slow” for reflections on moving slow.)
I never do get one foot totally off the floor. Instead, I choose to center my weight on one leg and use the opposite toe to keep me from doing a belly flop in front of my peers.
I am sharing this process of keeping my balance in a gym class because hidden within it are some basic principles to having a balanced life.
ESSENTIALS TO KNOW
To keep our balance, we need to know where our feet are.
‘Proprioceptors’ are nerve endings that tell us where we are in space. Lose a few, and it is pretty darn easy to tip over.
I wonder what spiritual proprioceptors I have, and how do they keep me upright?
We are all born with an underlying sense of right and wrong, but sometimes we lose sensitivity to an inner feeling that what we are about to do is unhealthy.
The more we ignore this internal feedback, the more we are apt to fall—physically, morally, ethically, or legally.
BALANCE AND INNER SPIRITUAL EARS
(Photo by Kyle-Smith on Unsplash)
Problems with our inner ears can adversely affect our balance also.
An otologist examines our physical inner ears for signs of inflammation or damage and has a plan to correct it.
But what about our spiritual ears?
There is particular input that is sure to inflame my inner ear and throw me totally off balance.
Too much listening to national news is the big one, but loud music, negative talking, and gossip can throw me off also.
Don’t you wish there were earplugs for our spiritual ears? Until then, the only thing we can do is guard our exposure to toxic input.
DOUBLE VISION—A SPIRITUAL IMPEDIMENT
(Photo by Nonsap-Visuals on Unsplash)
If you have ever had double-vision, you understand how difficult it is to walk a straight line without staggering or falling.
The natural response to double vision is to close one eye, but this can remove depth perception and lead us to stumble over curbs.
I often get impatient with different world views or theologies because I am not looking with two eyes, both focused on one point at the same time.
Instead of simultaneously seeing two points of view, I stumble forward with a blurry understanding of what someone is trying to show me from their viewpoint, superimposed on my own.
Sometimes the only way I can “see” what they are saying is to shut one picture out so I can focus with one clear eye.
CHOICES
Some of the things that affect balance are self-imposed.
That last glass of wine? Missing a good night’s sleep? Getting distracted and failing to observe a stumbling block?
One of the lessons I always taught my sons when they were little was about balance, explicitly falling. I would tell them, “It doesn’t matter if you fall. We all do. What matters is the decision to get back up.”
So too, are the ramifications of getting off balance in life.
(Photo by Photo-Nic on Unsplash)
Some days I plan to eat right, exercise, and attend to several responsibilities. Instead, I spend the day snacking, vegging on the sofa, and avoiding my to-do list.
As long as I stay wherever I have fallen and do not move, I have no options and no decisions to make except one – stay there or get back up!
There is nothing else to do.
When you think about it, landing face-first on the ground, we are somewhat ‘balanced.’ We can’t fall from there. But neither can we move ahead.
If we make the second choice – to get back up – we have a lot of options about what we want to do in life. But of course, getting back up is to invite the power of gravity (or failure) to happen again.
I would rather have the adventure of alternatives than to lie in the dirt without any opportunities at all.
PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER
Remember how I pinned my eyes to the light beam on the floor to keep my balance?
We can do the same thing in life by determining where the Light originates and where it lands.
What are the insights you discovered today?
What has been illuminated for you through your reading, prayer, or conversations with others?
Can you narrow that down to one single spot or idea and keep your eyes on it?
Sometimes the light moves, the insight fades, or someone else is standing in the way.
That’s OK. There is always another light beam.
Our challenge is to find it, and then focus until we find ourselves feeling steady and balanced once again.
May you find a point of Light to use as your hack to keep your balance in this topsy-turvy world.
