A Yoga Teacher’s 2 Minute Practice for Achieving — and Maintaining — Balance
By: Jl Carpenter
Tags: Mindfulness Practice, Yoga, Mindfulness, Mindfulness Meditation, Balanced Life

How can you establish a balanced life when, in these modern times, it often feels that you’re being pulled in every possible direction? Let me walk you through a little exercise to start things off.

Balance can be achieved no matter where you are in life — so long as you know where to begin.

Stand up for a second. Feel the soles of your feet on the floor, maybe the smooth texture of the wood or fuzziness of the carpet beneath you. Allow them to support the weight of your body.

Sway gently from side to side and acknowledge how your feet keep you grounded no matter where your center of balance shifts. Try rocking onto your tippy-toes and then back to your heels and then back to your toes and then back to your heels.

Move all your weight onto your left foot and lift your right foot just an inch off the ground. Pause. Now switch to the other foot. Pause. Place both feet back on the floor and feel stable once more.

Now take your attention to your upper body. Consider the neutral curvature of your spine and the way your shoulders relax down your back. Inhale and roll your shoulders up to your ears and then exhale and pull them back down.

None of those movements were too hard, were they? Think for a second about how none of this movement in your upper half would be possible without the balance you first established in your lower half.

When people ask for advice on achieving life balance, they often ignore this basic principle of pre-established stability. They try to throw themselves to the extremes — such as working too much and sleeping too little — without considering the importance of first creating a home base.

With this phrase “home base,” think of this as being both internal and external. If you’re coming back to a physical space each day that is cluttered with old pizza boxes and dirty laundry, how is that going to make you feel?

We are the products of our environment.

The space you create and the space you establish doesn’t just reflect who you are; it makes you who you are. If you have little to no control over your physical home space, find another space that feels like home to you. This will vary greatly from person to person, but you know that sensation of feeling like you’re at home even if you can’t define it. It could be a specific bench at an outdoor park, an exercise studio or gym, or even a person.

I was placed into a tiny dorm room during my freshman year of college alongside two roommates with whom I didn’t get along. I never felt safe in our room, and I did everything I could to minimize the amount of time I had to spend there. As part of that avoidance, I found myself subconsciously establishing new spaces that gave me that feeling of being at home: a corner of the second floor in my university’s library, a local yoga studio, and a coffee shop that made the best cinnamon-topped chai lattes.

Embrace the places or people that feel like home to you, and you’ll find yourself feeling more and more stable. When home becomes more than just the building containing the bed you sleep in at night, you’ll notice new sensations of stability forming before you know it.

And as for an internal home base, you need the space inside your head to feel genuinely good and safe. You have to spend your whole life with yourself, your mind, and your thoughts. Make your headspace a beautiful place to come back to. A move toward mindfulness requires conscious change.

Find a version of meditation that works for you. If your meditation practice entails sitting on a cushion for an hour a day, more power to you. But if that’s too intimidating of a place to start, find a version that works for you. Maybe you try a more structured approach with a free app such as Headspace, Calm, or Insight Timer. Follow a guided meditation on YouTube.

Or, read a great book and allow yourself to be immersed in another world for a while. Grab a cup of coffee or tea and watch the tendrils of steam rise. Cuddle with a pet and enjoy their warmth and slow-paced breathing. Go for a walk up a steep hill or a gentle jog around your neighborhood and notice how when your heart beats fast enough, you can’t help but focus on that being completely and entirely present.

All of this is much easier said than done. But keep in mind that we call mindfulness and yoga a practice, not a performance. They are ever-changing, require consistency, and will never, ever be perfect.