The Art of Balance

Balance is essential in every area of life.

You surely would have heard the story of the tortoise and the hare.

The hare runs fast, but isn't consistent.

The tortoise takes a more balanced approach and keeps moving ahead.

This isn't just a story, but has deeper meaning.

Let us say you want to start something. Let us say you want to become fitter.

And on Day 1, you exercise for 6 or 8 hours. You push yourself so much.

But can you do this over and over again?

Can you do it on Day 10?

You can't and thus you give up.

On the other hand if on Day 1 you exercised for an hour and made it a part of your routine, you can do it over and over again.

You can be consistent and you start feeling more energized and become fitter.

It applies to every area.

Let us say you work 18 hours a day, eventually you will break down.

All other areas in your life will crumble.

And you will be forced to re-look at how you lead your life.

This might be in the form of a health challenge or a crisis in your mental state or your relationships.

The Buddha spoke about the middle path. Krishna too shares about the middle path. All of them shared about leading a life of balance.

Balance comes when you have risen above your ego and bondages.

Your ego takes away balance.

You are so hungry for power or fame or money that you forget about balance.

You want to prove something to the people around you.

You want to prove you are better than them. You want to prove others wrong and want to prove yourself right.

And you start running and running and running.

But let me tell you, you will never reach your destination, because the ego becomes bigger and bigger.

The more you feed it, the hungrier it becomes.

Let us say you have a bike today, and you believe you will be happy only when you have a car.

You buy a small hatchback, now you will want a bigger sedan, then a bigger SUV, then a bigger luxury car, then even more and more and more.

It will never end. Because no matter who you are, someone else will have more than you.

Who is the richest man in your country today?

Do you think they are truly happy? Do you think they have everything?

Do they have perfect health? Do they need to take pills to stay healthy? Do their children love and respect them? Do they have the best relationships with their brother or family of wife or husband?

Do they not feel insecure about losing everything? Do they not feel afraid?

I know so many of them and they all have their inner doubts and fears, because deep down, they are still running the program of the ego.

To be free, you need to release your ego and tap into your inner harmony and balance.

Tao, Zen, Gita, Buddha, Sufis, Meister Eckhart, all speak about the same balance.

Because connecting with this balance is our natural state.

The way you have different seasons, different flowers in a garden, different birds in the sky, you need to have a balance of everything in your life.

From work to play to laughter to love to friendship to food to entertainment.

This is what true spirituality is - a beautiful balance.

Yogesh Chabria

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