BALANCE

Martially speaking, kuzushi, the stealing of your opponent’s balance, is a very good strategy. It also serves to illustrate how important our own balance is in terms of our martial efficacy whether throwing a punch or kick or taking the opponent to the ground and neutralizing the threat. 

Life sometimes unbalances us. We juggle many issues that can at any time threaten our serenity. This causes stress and undue stress can steal our balance. 

Certainly there is nothing I know of in life, assuming one is participating fully, authentically and with volitional consciousness, which is absolutely stress free. Some stress is good; it can push us to greater heights and it can help us overcome hardships.

That being said, too much stress whether in intensity or duration can cause health problems. 

Stress can be linked to back pain, intestinal problems, headaches and insomnia all of which can adversely affect your immune system and make you susceptible to illness. 

Coping with stress can further unbalance us. How we cope with stress can be either positive or negative. The negative ways in which we cope are common, using drugs, illegal as well as prescription, abusing alcohol and inappropriate behaviours such as anger, irritability, aggressiveness and even violence. 

What we can do to reduce stress in a positive manner runs the gamut from finding a quiet place, taking a nature walk, exercise, using candles, aromatherapy, massage or yoga. 

Stress reduction can also include doing the things we like to do the best, what Joseph Campbell, America’s foremost authority on mythology, would call “following your bliss."


Martial arts training for me fulfilled my life for many decades. But I also enjoyed photography (in the pre-digital age), training dogs, learning music, and of course, writing (which I have wanted to do since the age of four when I was a tyke in Liverpool, England). And it’s not about succeeding in these things as much as it is enjoying the process of participating in them. 

So what is it when we do these things that reduces our stress? 

It is the re-gaining of our balance in the world. It is re-establishing our harmony, it is our being in touch with who we are, what we are doing in the moment, where we are in nature, the world and with all our loved ones. 

We need balance to experience a good life. If too much energy is being placed into one area of your life, let’s say your career, and it is to the detriment of another area, then your life will become out of balance. 

Certainly problems are not all attributable to being conscientious about one’s career path. 

And it is indeed admirable for an individual to strive, succeed and maintain a place at the top of their game whatever that may be. Nothing succeeds like success. 

My favourite philosopher Aristotle advises us to cultivate what he calls our virtues, that is: the habit of choosing the mean between extremes of excess and deficiency in matters of action and emotion…

This was Aristotle's “Golden Mean,” and did not at all exemplify mediocrity, as some people say. 

I think it can serve as cautionary when one considers the enormous energy some careers require. In fact problems in your life can arise without you being a famous actor, athlete, a politician or a CEO of a major international conglomerate. You can simply be absorbed with your job to the point that you are not feeding the other aspects of your life thus “stealing you balance.” 

What if your job “sucks”? Perhaps it is all that you can get; but as the saying goes, “it pays the bills” even though you derive no real satisfaction from the daily routine of the work. 

Maybe you identify with Sisyphus whom the gods consigned to pushing a boulder up a mountain only to have it roll down so that he had to begin anew everyday for eternity. Now that sucks.

This situation is I suspect, much more common than we may think; after all there are only a small percentage of athletes, actors, politicians, CEO’s and other high-powered so-called, “shakers and movers” in our society. 

The majority of us are, after all is said and done, simply worker drones.

The solution is to bring this circumstance into better balance. Consider this a process and not so much a state of mind. 

First recognize that whatever your job, you are contributing to society at large, your family and loved ones and most importantly yourself. 

Honour yourself for being productive no matter what job you have, whether it is at the top of the world or the simplest menial task. It is still worth something! 

Your job may not be to your liking and maybe there are no promises of rose gardens here; you may have to settle with the fact that at least you are somewhat self-sufficient, end of story. 

But you might yet balance that situation by finding yourself an outlet. 

There are so many examples of what I mean by an outlet that I am going to name only a few. Mine was martial arts and I know many people in the same boat. For others it is coaching children to play various sports. If the cultural phenomenon, “American Idol” has shown us anything it is that many, many people have un- realized dreams. 

Some contestants have no hope of achieving their goals. But they at least had a chance, however slim, to achieve their goal and more importantly they had the intestinal fortitude to take the challenge! 

Getting back into balance when you cannot “follow your bliss” does not necessarily have to be about achieving something such as winning a popular talent contest; it could be simply appreciating music or art. 

Self-learning has never been so easy at is nowadays. There are many courses available on a wide range of topics. The local library is a great resource! Spread your wings and fly! There is so much to learn, to experience whether it is learning a new language, a new point-of-view or an appreciation of something newly discovered, it all feeds your “soul”. 

I think to become better balanced; to realize the “you” that you are, the following aspects need to be cultivated:

be creative: express yourself with drawing, writing, photography, scrapbooking, anything that you can do. 

be musical: either learn to play an instrument or gain appreciation of music, any kind of music. 

be artistic: learn to draw, paint or at least appreciate art; I know this has overlap with creativity, that’s okay, there are many ways of being creative and expressing one’s self. 

be physical: do something; walk, run, swim, lift weights, hike, cycle, play sports, practice martial arts but do something; don’t just sit there on the couch! 

be philosophical: philosophy simply means “love of wisdom”, examine your life. Socrates said, “…The unexamined life is not worth living.” There are many philosophies and I am sure you have your own style pertinent to your life, so examine it, codify it and discover it. 

be spiritual: This is a loaded word; the word spirare in Latin concerns “breathing or to breathe” as does the word conspiracy; breathing together; the implication for me is that if you are breathing you are alive therefore to me, spiritual, spirit, spirituality refers to the conscious appreciation that I am alive and that other things are alive. 

When I use the word spiritual I am usually thinking of connecting to the natural world, finding an appreciation in a rainbow, a walk in the woods, the awe of a sunrise, the nurturing laugh of a close friend. This is sometimes the hardest of things to do in our western society. 

be intellectual: I am not saying you need to compete for the Nobel Prize in Quantum Physics, just try to improve your understanding of the natural world around you and especially the reasoning behind your personal world-view. 

For instance, in conversation there is a hierarchy, the lowest form of conversation is talking about food, then sex, things, people, while the highest form of conversation is the discussion of ideas and concepts. Be aware of this and seek the highest concept to increase your intellect. Whatever you do, just think and broaden your thinking. 

Let us not forget that to be loved one has to love. The nourishment of relationships romantic and familial is important. Family, friends and loved ones are important and not to be forgotten if we wish to be truly balanced.