On Balance
Many a times in our lives we encounter, and experience events that imbalance us. This world has so much wonder, and joy, yet there is also malice, and sadness within it. We all heard about the Yin, and Yang, about Adam and Eve, and that without light there would be darkness. The universe, with all of its wondrous galaxies, nebula's, constellations, and distant stars, as vast it might be, has some center. There is a gravitational pull in each solar system. Where the neighboring planets get attracted to and revolve, constantly staying in balance, not gravitating too close, not separating too far. In an ever persistent equilibrium.
Then why, are some humans having difficulty to center themselves? To remain calm during times of adversity, to remain balanced in times of excitement? Maybe we need to look within, at our core, at our center? We cannot always control our emotions, our thoughts. Sometimes we need to communicate better, with our selves, with others. To understand what triggered the imbalance? Maybe some trigger, that had roots deep within. Unknown to us. The key in silence may be found.
As time passed by, after happiness of the distant past we may have lost our wings, we forget, yet that does not mean that the joy of the future is unbelievable, or that we should give up. As one coin has two sides, there are two of us within ourselves. On the flip side of rare extremes, how curious it would be to see ourselves into two others, split? Is it possible?
"Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled." ~ The Kybalion.
With our hectic daily lives, the information, constant noise, flashing lights, that seek our attention, we forget to quiet ourselves, look within and just be. Our inner balanced rhythm gets overwhelmed by the loud outside world. We get used to it so much that after a while, we do not recognize that fact, and we ourselves change, seek those constant stimuli, and demand them. How many out there are addicted to their cell phones, and to the constant messages popping up, with updates, news, and alerts? To have tens of websites open, and within each hundred more tabs, within each, videos, news, and ads. All of which compete for our attention, and not to mention daily tasks, that change, and keep us busy. We become emotional based on those stimuli. We get pushed to decisions we would not normally make, and they are just instinct. Both the rational mind, as well as the observation of the irrational mind needs to be observed. And both need to be considered.
"When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new." ~ Dalai Lama
Sometimes we need to disconnect. Step away form our daily lives, retreat. That is maybe why so many turn to listen to mantras, and chants, which are repetitive. Just like the human heart has its rhythm; we too need to step back and see what pushes us away from our center, to get back to it. Just like a proper relationship needs to be balanced, to give and take. One needs to balance oneself to not go from extremes to new extremes. On one side our lives, might become paradise, or hell, it all depends how we look at it. First we make our beliefs, but then our beliefs make us. Carrying worries, and looking at negatives makes us drown in darkness, and we become that darkness ourselves, without realizing it. Yet when we look and seek the good that surrounds us, we may see even more of it, more and more, and the world is colorful, and bright, unlike before. With such infinite potential, for success, love, health, wealth, and happiness. Things that some maybe blocked away from being possible. Some suppress, and repress our wants, and desires. We need to upgrade our thoughts, and thought patterns. Sometimes to change the world we need to change within, and only then we can start the work that we were set to begin.
There are a lot of elements that we are unable to control. By understanding what we are unable to control, we gain freedom, freedom of worry....so we should concentrate on only those elements that we can control. When we approach a situations which involves emotions, especially those that we do not want. we might not be able to control them, as such we become unbalanced. The imbalance might be displayed in a form of fear, anger, or impetuous uncontrollable happiness, that might be misunderstood by others, as something else, possibly unintended. These internalized emotions might affect others in a less than positive manner, thus leading to actions, or words inspired by others, both positive, and possibly negative alike. "He who understands the Principle of Vibration, has grasped the scepter of power," ~ Kybalion
For some listening to music, chants, or mantras might not be of help to quiet down, and balance oneself. At times a simple walk in nature might offer some grounding, or along the beach. Some might maybe find benefit from sensory deprivation chambers. To still his or her mind and then some revelations may come, in silence. Without distractions of the daily world.
As with the impulses of our neurons, that fire when we get emotional, we create an impact in our environment, by actions or by our words. Words that are sound and vibrations.
Some vibrations have an impact upon our bodies, minds, and emotions. We are affected by those resonant air pressure waves - sound. We can be hurt, as well as heal by sound. Sound is something we connect with deeply, on an emotional level, and lingers in our memory. Just like words can hurt, and heal, they too can resonate within us deeply.
Just like a piano might need re-tuning from time to time. Sometimes our frequencies get misaligned, and change, because of the environment in which we spend our time in the most, or because of other externalities that are beyond our control. After a while they might come back into alignment and resonate even more deeply within us, once we learn how to balance ourselves. Sometimes there are triggers in our lives that remind us of who we are, of who we were meant to be.
Events or meetings that make us rethink our paths, and our goals. To evaluate, and re-tune us ever so gently in the direction that is right for us. At times we do not realize their impact, and we might perceive those events negatively, rather than objectively see that they were positive. In those times it is important to let go of the ego, and take a step back, and listen, and see what is really going on, to look at the details, and facts that we were too hasty to see initially. Thus creating a clouded judgment. After such introspection maybe we are capable of realignment with what needed to be, with realignment with others. Like a tuning fork we could become aligned with our own selves, the ones we forgot we truly are. Those changes in our own frequency might change our realities quite substantially, for the good.
Sometimes to balance ourselves we need to start thinking differently, or take action, to control our actions, or at the very least be mindful of our emotions. Emotions that can trigger our actions, and words. Ones that at times get misaligned and are lacking harmony, ones that can create unnecessary chaos in our lives, and the lives of others.
In order to bring balance we can take some simple steps that anyone can try themselves. One of these steps is changing their neural activity. Perhaps this might be hard to do for some, and the idea of it might be daunting for others. The secret lies within changing one’s heart. The heart rhythms. Not trying to concentrate on what we are unable to control. But to concentrate on what we are able to control, and act upon it, causing indirect results in that we are not "ordinarily" able to control.
One of those controllable elements is our breathing. Which in turn can calm our heart, which in turn eases our brain activity.
(Part "3" - Updated: December 30th)
As with any causality principle, and experiences in life we probably experienced many events in our lives that made us ponder upon the “why?”. Why did something happen, why did some words, or actions impact us on some level, more so than others. Sometimes some results that we wish to achieve are supposedly out of our reach. In order to change our results we need to look at our behavior. The behavior that might be influenced by many factors. Many times the external outputs such as the performance, or behavior is driven by deeper, and internal factors.
The driving force behind our behavior is our thinking. Why do we think about certain things, topics, people in certain ways, and not another? What influences those? Is it our feelings? Or our thoughts? Do our thoughts get affected by our feelings? Or does our thinking influence our feelings? Both might be interdependent upon one another. At times sometimes we do not separate our feelings form our thinking, they seem to be the same to us…they might be separate. Divided between emotion, and a purely logical approach, at times it might be hard to distinguish them for some, yet they are different.
Delving deeper we could look at our emotions, which in turn might be driven by our physiology. Physiology, which is based on the most rudimentary form of data. Impulses, nerve channels, pressure, chemical signals, and so on, are all impulses of data that are sent to our brain. All that can result in the creation of emotions. All of the above mentioned impulses are energy that is being transferred to our main “control unit”. In a way Emotion is energy in motion, an energetic state that perpetually passes along from one spot to another in our bodies. What if we were to concentrate on the perception of those energetic transference? Would we not call them feelings? There are positive and negative emotions present in our lives.
If an individual becomes anxious, what are the energetic signatures of it? The heart rate increases, the mouth dries out, we could have an upset stomach, and the palms might sweat. It has an impact upon our thinking processes, and behaviors, and then performance. Many a times, we do not become aware of it on that level. Thus we are unable to control all these levels.
In order to maintain balance one needs to understand what is the rudimentary center point of all these. Some might say it is the brain. But what drives the brain? It is the heart. It is our engine, our driving force. As with any engine it creates energy. When it comes to each generator, or engine, we are usually interested in its output, in its output power. So how would we measure that in a human heart? It is the heart rate variability. And why does it matter? It has an impact upon our brain. Stressful situations, impact our heart rate, thus our brain. The chaotic variance in our heart rate creates a wide fluctuation. The key to achieve balance. Normalize, and create a stable variance. Our heart sends off these signals to the brain, in particular via the vagus nerve. With stress the frontal lobe gets affected, and our perceptional awareness diminishes. Thus at times we do not act the way we would “normally” act.
Our own anxiety can cause this chaos. Without the understanding, and the attempt of control of such mechanisms we will not be successful at reaching our behavioral goals. We might say, or act in ways we did not expect. Or even think in manners we would normally not. As a depressed individual thinks of subjects that differ from a happy person. One must have to think about his own thinking process…and be mindful of all of the interwoven elements, on deeper levels. “A new level of thinking is needed to solve problems…”, as Einstein once said. The context in which the thoughts emerge need to be modified. The emotional state from which the thoughts emerge need to be modified. As the biological and emotional context change, we can change the quality of the thought, as well the actual thought itself.
Conscious control over our breathing is one element that can allow us to modify ourselves to even think differently. Out of many aspects of breathing - rhythm is one of the most important ones in this case. By concentrating on our breathing, in a stable rhythmic manner we can change our heart rate in under a minute. The heart beat pattern becomes normalized, the signal patterns sent to the brain become more stable. The heart’s physiology is able to change form an erratic state, to a coherent sinusoidal waveform, thus resulting in a better frontal lobe function. Thus allowing us to become more perceptive, our thinking is clearer. Problems no longer overwhelm us.
As long as we concentrate on a rhythmic breath pattern, of breathing in for the same quantity of time as we breath out we will be able to achieve these results. A fixed ratio of breathing in and breathing out for the same duration of time is key.
Secondly the smoothness of the breath is of importance. A fixed volume per second of the air getting in and out of our lungs needs to be even. The pressure on the lungs needs to be uniform.
While we breathe it is also of value to concentrate on the breathing location. The heart generates more electrical power than any other part of our human body; it is estimated that its auto coherence is approximately generating 2 Watts to 3.5Watts (Fay, J & Sonwalkar, N. A Fluid mechanics hypercourse, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1996). It generates about five thousand times more electromagnetic energy than the human brain. As such it is the primary source of power. Concentrating on the chest/ heart will also let us center a bit more, than any other location, and allows us to drift into a more positive state.
When it comes to two polarized sides of the spectrum we exist between the states of nervous adrenal overload, and relaxation. Between sympathetic, and parasympathetic activation. As equally, between the negative emotion state (enhanced by the cortisol hormone for instance), and positive state (influenced by anabolic hormones, such as DHEA). On the negative side we can experience anxiety, frustration, or anger. On the positive side we can be focused and passionate. On both sides the heart rate might be the same, yet on the positive side the heart rate will be coherent, and will allow us to enhance our performance. If we are passionate about something we will perform a lot better. On the other side of the spectrum, we may be relaxed, yet negative. This will lead to boredom, detachment, indifference, and apathy, leading to an erratic heart rate. Reversely, while being relaxed and positive we can be in a state of contentment, and equanimity, with a stable, and even heart rate.
Moving from the negative and adrenal driven emotional state we should strive to at the very least balance oneself. Our emotional performance would be more controllable. So would be our emotional performance, behavior, thinking, feelings, and emotional state. We could get to this center point at the very least by breathing. A lot of individuals react on instinct, based on outside factors. But what if we tried to gain control over the internal and controllable factors? Such as mindful breathing. What possibilities would we be able to achieve? What would be our true potential?
You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. ~ Marcus Aurelius
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. ~ Marcus Aurelius
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. ~ Marcus Aurelius
The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it. ~ Marcus Aurelius
The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. ~ Marcus Aurelius
Spiro & Excelsior!