Finding Balance in Yoga and in Life

When teaching yoga, I hear myself using the word "balance" a lot: Balance your weight between your front and back foot; Find balance between effort and ease; Establish your balance before finding depth. Balance is an important aspect of yoga, and of life in general. Yet we don't always stop to think about what balance really means.

Bakasana

Balance is give and take. It's a little less of one thing and a little more of something else. Take bakasana. This challenging pose is actually more about balance than strength. Tip too far forward and you may topple over, but, if you stay too far back, you may never get your feet off the floor.

Bakasana looks and feels challenging, especially when first practicing it. Finding the sweet spot in this pose may take weeks, months or even years of practice. But what about finding the sweet spot in other, more seemingly simple poses? What about finding the sweet spot in life?

Let's take a minute to consider Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II). With both feet on the ground, you may not think of this as a "balance pose," but there is a lot of balancing going on in Warrior II. Your stability is balanced between your front and back feet, your torso is balanced between your front and back legs, and your arms are balancing between reaching forward and reaching back. And that's just the beginning.

Throughout your yoga practice, in every pose, you are also balancing between effort and ease. You are balancing between feeling the strength of the pose and finding the softness to maintain your steady, rhythmic breath. You are finding your personal edge, the sweet spot where you are challenged but not overdoing it.

The same holds true in more yin-style poses, like paschimottanasana, or seated forward bend. Holding onto your feet (or looping a strap around your feet) encourages you to come deeper into pose, but pulling or forcing yourself deeper will only lead to injury. Instead, you must find the bind that supports you just enough to let you gradually deepen the pose, breath by breath.

These same lessons in balance also apply to your life off of the mat.

Balance and moderation is part of a healthy diet, a well-rounded fitness routine, and a supportive social life. It is also key in time management, which underlies everything you do.

When I began this blog a few months ago, I was very excited to have a place to share my love of yoga. I thought I would post two, maybe even three times a week. I would cover all the topics. I would be part of the growing yoga conversation, encouraging more people to experience the benefits of yoga both on and off the mat. (!)

As of today, it has been two full months since my last post. My grand plans fell far short because I failed to balance my plans for this blog with the rest of my life. In the excitement of a new project, I forgot that my time is already spread too thin.

Balancing my time between all of my interests and commitments is a constant struggle for me. And I suspect it's a struggle for many other people as well.

So let's take it back to basics. Balance is give and take. It's a little less of one thing and a little more of something else. I've made some important changes in the last few weeks. I've given up some freelance writing clients (day job) to balance my increased yoga classes. I'm getting more sleep, which means less waking hours, but more energy/productivity while I am awake. I'm also setting more realistic goals for my projects, giving myself some downtime in between.

How can you find more balance in your life? How can you apply the balance you've learned in yoga to your time off the mat?