On Balance 5
Nothing happens to the wise man against his expectations. (Seneca)
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“I lost balance.“
“Why is that a problem?“
“I don’t want to lose balance.“
“There’s your problem right there.
Losing balance is inevitable. What you want is an impossibility.
Losing balance is outside your control. Something external happens which triggers an unconscious internal response – oft-times unpleasant. You can’t control the internal response. What you can control is how you respond to and how fast you recover from it.
Expect losing balance, my dear. Greet it as an old friend. Thus you ensure it never takes you by surprise.
Losing balance is a beautiful opportunity to practice recovery. Every time you lose balance is another rep(etition) of this vital art.
Losing balance is a beautiful opportunity to learn something about yourself. Every time you lose balance ask yourself:
What is the lesson?
Find the lesson, then express gratitude for the beautiful gift.
There’s always a gift.“
On Meaning
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“What’s the difference between you at your highest and you at your lowest?“
“Connection with Meaning.
To navigate life, we build a Map of Meaning for ourselves to give us a sense of purpose and direction. In the absence of a Map, we drift through life, from distraction to distraction, in an effort to temporarily extinguish the gnawing emptiness within.
Without a Map, the challenge is forgetting.
With a Map, the challenge is remembering.
We can’t help temporarily forgetting what’s essential. Balance is a perpetual homecoming – endlessly losing ourselves and finding our way back to Meaning.“
“By Meaning are you referring to God?“
“For some, it is God. For others, something else. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as it opens your heart to the Beauty of existence.“
On Balance 4
Life is not a stable process. Our ability to recover is our greatest quality. (Moshe Feldenkrais)
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“I lost balance.”
“Recovery after losing balance is one of the most important life skills.
You can’t practice recovery without losing balance.
Losing balance is a gift.
Every time you lose balance is an opportunity to practice recovery. Always make the most of it.”
On Balance and Design
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“Every time something disturbs your Balance is a beautiful opportunity.
A learning opportunity, in understanding the causes and practicing recovery.
A creative opportunity, in designing an optimal response and the learning protocol itself.”
“What is the output of the design process?”
“A set of practical questions for every aspect of the process.
For instance:
When x, what y? (question template)
When you lose balance, what y? (question template)
When you lose balance, what is the optimal response?
Recovering balance has a mental and physical component. Translated in question form:
When you lose balance, what do you want to think?
When you lose balance, what do you want to do?”
On Balance 3
Balance is an active process of returning to the center. It’s not about being perfect each and every day but responding and paying attention. (Matt Myers)
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“Losing balance is inevitable.
Balance is not static. It’s a state of dynamic equilibrium.”
“Like balancing.”
“We might think of balancing as embodied balance.
Every instance of losing balance is a beautiful opportunity.
Opportunity to practice recovering balance (Equanimity), to perfect your recovery protocol (and efficiency).
Opportunity to learn something about yourself, by understanding why you lost balance.
Every instance of losing balance is a rep(etition).
The more you lose balance, the more reps you get in.
The more varied you lose balance, the more adaptable you become.
Think of every instance of losing balance as a training session.
You will not remember most of the times you lost balance in a few days, or even the next day. Their value is in the moment. Be grateful for and make the most of every single one of them.
You can even start every session with a mantra, like:
‘This is what I train for!’ (Brain Johnson)
‘This is what I need!’ (Joseph Campbell)
‘This too is the Beautiful Game [<link; medium read].'”
“How do you measure progress?”
“By how fast you recover balance, and by the extent to which you can recover balance from any point.”
On Balance 2
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“I consider Balance one of the most important values.”
“What do you mean by Balance?”
“I mean moderation. Neither too much, nor too little. Think Aristotle’s golden mean between excess and deficiency.
I mean equanimity. The moment to moment practice of returning to your Center.
I mean proportionality. I use Brian Johnson’s beautiful Big Three framework:
Energy
Work
Love
All of them are equally important, so I strive to give them equal attention.
I mean oscillation. Two types in particular:
Input/Output – the balance between absorbing information and creating and acting on it.
On/Off – the balance between full engagement and full disengagement.
I like to think of the last two as a daily checklist.”
Balancing the Input with the Output 2
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“What is more important, [informational] input or [behavioral and creative output] output?”
“Output.”
“Which are you dedicating more time to?”
“How about balancing the input with the output [<link; short read]?”
“By balancing I don’t mean equal distribution – I mean allocating time proportionally to importance.”
Win-Win
Fragments from imaginary dialogues
“What is the Win-Win principle?“
“It has a double meaning.
On one hand, it means ‘I win only if you win too’.
You can metaphorically think of it as (another facet of) Balance.
If both of us win, we’re in Balance.
If I win and you lose or have no gain, or the other way around, we’re out of Balance.
It means striving to make every single interaction mutually beneficial.
On the other hand, it means you win regardless of the outcome.
You win if you succeed.
You win if you fail. Even more so in this case – that’s where the gems are found [<link, medium read].“
Recent Comments