Finding Balance

For me, in my long journey towards health (mental, physical, spiritual) there is a difference between balance and harmony.

Obtaining balance across all 3 areas is hard since they influence each other so heavily. Harmony on the other hand is this agreed upon state of concord which fundamentally includes the idea of agreeing to disagree.

For me balance is a mindful practice; a fine tuning that you have full power over, that your will is directed towards achieving, not an accepted discordance.

It is sometimes necessary to to spend time in that kind of discordance especially for many of us with chronic illness … you take your wins where you can get them. You accept that one thing is terrible today but that others are not. Your body isn’t in balance and probably never will be, but your mind is clear or your spirit isn’t as heavy and that’s all you could ask for. The effort to achieve true balance is … like a whole other full-time job that many don’t have the time or energy for.

But … I have managed it in my life … sometimes for long periods of time … I have the tools, the data, the will, the support, and the focus to maintain it … but it absolutely IS a whole other kind of lifestyle and sometimes that work is even more challenging than simply learning to accept the pain and misery that I was so used to most of my life. Getting to a full state of balance though … that feeling … is warm and epic and like a natural high absolutely, for me, worth chasing.

It took me decades to really understand my entire self as a physical, mental, and spiritual machine … and that there was a lot that needed to be done to keep all those aspects not only healthy but in BALANCE. It doesn’t take much to tip the scales and everything informs upon and affects the other regardless of what people would like to believe. I have the luxury of having tons of time to focus on all of that … but I think even in small amounts you can realign yourself towards brightness.