I have a former boss who once told me “Balance is just a conversation.” while urging me to spend extra hours on some project or another…I can’t recall the project because it was always something at that job…the results were never enough even when you exceeded your promise.

Balance is indeed a conversation and I dare say a worthwhile and honorable pursuit. We are a culture that worships extremes. Fascinated by the highs and lows of the human condition, we celebrate extreme effort, ultimate this and minimal that…as if the midway were a dangerous and all together unsavory place to be. I understand. I’ve never wanted to be normal and have relished being different, exceptional and even weird. However I believe we are coming into a new age, one in which balance is the key to wellness if not a direct pathway to happiness and being a well adjusted human being. Balance to me means tending to every domain of my life and moving things forward in all of them weekly if not daily. I don’t want to be great in just 1 or 2 areas, I want to be fully expressed in all areas of my life and that takes attention.

I see a shift coming, albeit slowly, from excess to moderation as a practice. Perhaps it’s the silver lining in our recession, this turn towards fiscal sanity and slowing our roll a bit…though I assert we are still too plugged in to information overload for our own good more often than not. Extremes are no longer the answer. Each individual needs to find the balance that’s right for them. I was just reading a series of essays called “New Cells, New Bodies, NEW LIFE” by Virginia Essence,ed. and was struck by this paragraph:

“Man will again recognize his relationship to nature and will bring inner balance to himself and his universe. He must bring balance between work and play, activity and rest. It is in this point in time that there must be brought about acceptance and new perspectives.”

I am an easy sell re:balance, mostly because it makes me happy and it’s sustainable. I have a tendency to work more or overextend myself to prove my worth…but that never made me happy~just tired! Oddly enough when I practice balance I am naturally more productive. I think better. I write more. I have better ideas. I don’t mess around or elongate trivial tasks because I have to make space for the activities that give me balance, make me feel nurtured and cared for. The more cared for I feel the more I’ve got to give. I like giving, it becomes me. I no longer give til I drop however and that’s due to my pursuit of balance.

Death by altruism is death none the less.