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What is
balance?
Balance is a state of equilibrium: a
condition of stillness and
rest. It is often defined as 'emotional stability' and 'mental clarity'.
A balanced person is considered to have good judgement; a steadiness of both
body and character.
Physical balance
Many people are not physically
balanced. They slouch or stoop. Their gait (manner of walking) is poor.
Often, an individual cannot comfortably stand on one leg.
Research shows that people’s
ability to stand on one leg is an indicator of health and that getting
better at standing on one leg can add to fitness and potentially lifespan.
The inability to balance on one leg for 20 seconds or longer is linked in
otherwise healthy people to an increased risk of small blood vessel damage
in the brain and reduced ability to understand ideas.
The human body, when standing upright, is inherently unstable. We have a
very small base of support relative to our height and width. When in good
health we rely on our central and peripheral nervous system to integrate all
the information coming in from our balance senses (eyes, inner ears and
feedback from muscles and joints). We then engage the right muscles (feet,
ankle, leg and core muscles, sometimes even the arm muscles) at the right
time to make the necessary adjustments to our posture to stay upright.
(Professor Dawn Skelton)
Unbalanced is the norm
Do you sleep well? Are you clumsy? Is your life
hurried and rushed? Do you have time for yourself?
Is your back aching or stiff, especially
around the base of the neck and the shoulders?
Are your moods erratic? Do you get headaches
a lot? Most people experience imbalance: it often involves work,
relationships, diet, poor body use and careless exercise.
People come to accept the lack of balance in their lives and do not imagine
that there can be another way.
Seeking to avoid the negative
Usually, we desire one element (success) whilst seeking to avoid a less
desirable alternative (failure). Happiness without sorrow. Health without
illness.
Real life
In reality, we typically experience a mixture of
positive and negative events. Sometimes things go in our favour, sometimes
they do not.
Although this is less palatable than continual success, it is simply how
things are. Balance involves good and bad, difficult and easy, favourable
and unfavourable. This is what balance means...
Opposites?
Apparent opposites are actually part of a single process:
Male and female
Activity and rest
Work and play
Positive and negative
Strong and weak
Easy and difficult
Up and down
Left and right
Front and back
Increase and decrease
The list could go on
indefinitely...
Relative
Hot is not separate from cold. They are both relative values;
measurements of temperature. Everything is like this.
Wealth is relative to poor, inside to outside, fat to thin, appearance to
disappearance, happy to sad, noise relative to silence, busy relative to
still.
There can be no day without night, no weekend without weekday, no light
without darkness. We tend to see things as being independent, when in fact
they are joined.
Front and back arise from each other.
Difficult and easy determine each other.
High and low define each other.
Long and short measure each other.
Sound and silence echo each other.
Being and non-being are each other.
(Lao Tzu)
Yin/yang
This is the Chinese symbol called 'tai chi' or 'the supreme ultimate'. The
symbol contains yin and yang. Yin is black and yang is white.
Hard/soft, strong/weak, day/night, male/female are all represented by this
symbol. Within the apparent opposites, part of the other exists. The symbol
represents balance.
Yin and yang join to form a composite whole.
Harmony
Balance involves taking more than one thing into account simultaneously.
There is seldom just one side to any situation or just one factor to
consider.
Learning to see the relationship of apparent opposites (and harmonising
them) is the skill of balancing.
The art of balance
Tai chi is concerned with the process of balancing
yin and yang, of returning the body to a healthy, natural condition.
It works on:
Body posture
Body usage
Emotional composure
Energy
Mind, body, spirit
Balance is maintained through minimal energy
expenditure, economy of action, emotional stability and meaningful use of speech.
Action is entirely proportionate to the demands of the situation.
Our
syllabus was
designed to balance the mind and the body every time you practice.
Emotional balance
Composure is emotional balance; the ability to remain emotionally stable in the
event of crisis or stress.
We encounter many things in life that might upset a person,
tai chi teaches us
to remain calm.
Adjustment
People cannot reasonably find a fixed point of balance in their lives
because life is not static.
The changing nature of existence means that we need to be
re-adjusting
constantly.
This process of continual re-adjustment occurs in relation to the changing
nature of what is happening.
We cannot expect to be permanently 'balanced' because nothing in our lives will ever
remain stable and fixed.
Tai chi trains us to move with what is happening, to flow and change
without resistance.
Finding balance
As a person becomes more balanced - physically and mentally - their
health naturally improves.
Balance is fundamental to tai chi.
We must become aware of what is balanced in our lives and what is not...
Without awareness, life can become hurried and stressful.
The emphasis in tai chi is upon enjoying yourself
and being happy with who you are and how you are living your life.
Yin and yang are not in competition or conflict with each other but are
complements of each other.
Balance is not a state but a process.
The Tao is a process, a dynamic condition of balanced moving.
(Ray Grigg)
Page created 19 April 1995
Last updated
16 June 2023