The Greek philosophers said it a little differently than India’s yogis, referring to their golden mean or golden middle way, a balance between excess and deficiency. The Delphic maxim was “nothing in excess.” Aristotle said courage is a virtue, but in excess it leads to recklessness; when deficient, cowardice.
Spirit and Body You have a body and a spirit, which need to be balanced. In Las Vegas, people abuse their bodies with way too much alcohol and partying. What happens in Vegas sometimes means hospitalization.
On the other hand is the ashram experience – a life dedicated to spirit that often subjugates the needs of the body. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the guru who taught me how to teach Transcendental Meditation, talked about 200 percent of life: to become enlightened and prosperous. Think Deepak Chopra, a spiritual multi-millionaire.
Rest and Activity
Vegas is a town filled with gambling meccas that provide no clocks and rarely shut down, so the natural cycle of rest and activity so necessary for health in life is obliterated. People shoot craps all night long and play blackjack way past the rising of the sun, which leads to excess fatigue and cloudy thinking – the perfect formula for losing money in a casino.
Sleep deprivation is linked to diseases of the heart, the kidneys, as well as stroke, diabetes, obesity and depression. Of course, sleeping too long isn’t good either. This can lead to heart disease, stroke and diabetes. A natural balance of rest and activity keeps you healthy. Adding another two daily cycles of rest through meditation keeps you evolving consciously.
“He who eats too much cannot be a yogi. He who fasts too much cannot be a yogi. He who sleeps too much cannot be a yogi, nor he who keeps awake too much. But those who are temperate in eating and recreation, balanced in work, and regulated in sleep, can mitigate all sorrows by practicing Yoga.”
– Bhagavad-Gita, Chapter 6, verses 16 and 17
Work and Play Despite the maxim “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy,” the workplay balance is overlooked in society. We lionize the workaholic committed to success and being remarkably responsible. But there’s nothing responsible about excess hard work at the cost of much-needed downtime leisure. As the maxim goes, ”Nobody on his death bed regrets not having spent more time in the office.”
It’s essential for your health on all levels to switch off from work to enjoy the play that work affords you. This is particularly important for the growing millions of people who own their own businesses, and those who work at home.
Here are some tips: Get a cell phone for your professional life and one for your personal life. Don’t answer business calls while you’re watching your kid’s baseball game. And definitely don’t pick up calls from the office when you’re making love.
Be more healthy at your office. Move your body so it doesn’t sit all day, create downtime healthy lunch away from your desk and business phone.
If you work at home, create an office separate from your living area and don’t work in your personal space.
Take regular vacations to vacate from your habitual world and see new places. Seeing new ways of living, eating, dancing, and so forth expands your mind and gives you a broader perspective.
Mind and Heart Stereotypically, it’s believed that men put greater emphasis on the thoughts in their minds while women heed the feelings in their hearts. Obviously, males pay attention to their feelings and females think very clearly, but too often we find people in whom there is a tendency for a dominance of one of these at the expense of the other. Exaggerated examples of this are the philosopher who has no idea what he’s feeling, or the journaling intuitive who’s so out of balance with her mind that she can never balance her checkbook or clear her voicemail messages.
Eating and Fasting
In our obese culture, where the diet industry has exceeded $135 billion annually, there’s a great need for balance between eating and… well, not eating. Too often those with eating disorders eat their feelings and abuse food. Here, in South Florida all-you-can-eat buffets abound.
Eating shouldn’t be a contest to see how much of it you can do; it’s an activity that’s done three times a day to sustain life. The mantra for the person in balance is eat to live; for the obese person it’s often live to eat.
In recent years, there’s been a surge in intermittent fasting. An increasing number of doctors and nutritionists have preached the value of giving the entire digestive system a rest after dinner and not activating it again until the next day’s lunch. In addition to creating weight loss, it helps balance the body so that it’s not working so hard and gets a chance to rest.
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Put the tips in this story into practice and you will have more balance in your life. And that means more harmony and happiness.
successaerobics@aol.com
Cary Bayer is a Life Coach and the founder of Higher Self Healing Meditation. He conducts private practice and teaches meditation classes by the ocean in South Florida ((845) 664-1883) and in the mountains in Woodstock, New York (845-679-5526). You can find him at www.carybayer.com and reach him at successaerobics@aol.com.
