Jul 09 2008
The Joys of Balance
Imagine your body, as if every part of it were a part of your life. Your head was (naturally) the part of you that needed intellectual enrichment, whether it be reading books, talking to other intelligent people, taking classes, or watching CNN.
Your lower legs involved your activity level…one leg for walks and individual exercise, one for team sports–friendly volleyball games, swimming with your kids at the lake, etc. Your chest dealt with the emotional side of who you are, involving watching old movies (for me, tear-jerkers), and the arms extended from there to represent relationships, one arm for family members, one for friends.
I will refrain from describing the lower torso, but you most likely can let your imagination take care of that one.
Anyway, imagine what would happen to your body if the blood from your heart stops going to one of these areas…say, your right arm, the arm that connects to your friends. It may be you are too busy to call them, or too tired at the end of the day to talk, or you’ve had a fight with one of them. Maybe you’re caught up in other tasks, and those tasks have dominated your life so that you have no room for friends.
So the right arm atrophies…shrivels and dies because nothing’s going to it. And when you realize it’s nearly falling off, you start pumping blood back into it, but it’s almost too late, and the going is pretty slow. The arm is stiff, resistent, wounded. You start pumping all your blood into it to revive it, but that makes the rest of your limbs cry out that now they aren’t getting enough. Your head starts to get dizzy, and your legs are likely to crumple under you…
I’m not sure the metaphor works for you, but it works for me. My own state of happiness depends on balancing everything. If I get too lonely, or don’t get intellectual stimulation, or don’t get to paint or write, or don’t see my husband for a few days (when he’s gone at a conference or works late), all of these imbalances can throw my life off balance, leaving me reeling and trying to figure out where I’ve gone wrong. (I didn’t put anything in about my kids, for they are really the center of my world right now, just as they should be, considering how young they are. However, on a few occasions, when I must be away from them for a few days, I find myself severely imbalanced.)
Right now, though, I feel pretty balanced. I just need to remain diligent and keep the blood flowing everywhere, keeping a little of everything in my life, neglecting nothing that pertains to my overall well-being. I need my walks, my interactions with friends and family, my husband, my kids, my books, my writing, my painting, my piano, my singing…
I guess that makes me pretty high-maintenance. Higher, at least, than I once thought.
