The Play of Balancing

Please enjoy this entry from our guest blogger, Derrick. He is currently taking yoga teacher training with the Maritime Yoga College.

Week 7 - March 1st:

Our frameworks, or the beliefs that structure our perception and cognition, influence how we experience the world. Our frameworks are given to us through our conditioning and we are able to rearrange our frameworks through reflection and contemplation, and can create new ones! 

Today I would like to look at how we frame balancing. :) 

Balance is often represented as a scale coming into equilibrium, and our noun-based language frames balance as a static state. Through my practice of yoga and integration of yoga philosophy into my life I have come to understand balance as a constant play, as a negotiation, as a practice of readjusting and maintaining optimal efficiency.  

Our focus over the past weekend in our Yoga-Teacher-Training was on balancing poses. When you come into a balancing pose you are increasing the strength and stability of the body, as well as focus and concentration of the mind. When you come into a balancing pose you are not locking the body into a static position like statue, but rather are engaging the strength of the mind and body to ground into the Earth and lift up towards the sky. 

A great mantra to assist in your balancing poses is with each inhale, draw energy up through your body and as you exhale, ground energy down through your body, just like a tree is rooted and lifting at the same time.

When you are balancing you are incredibly present in the moment, and as your mind wanders so does your focus - and thus your balance. When you hold a balancing pose you will have moments where you settle into the posture and feel a rush of peace and power, but your balance may shift and you will have to readjust and settle again. This play involved in balancing poses is analogous to the balance we seek in our lives. It is a constant negotiation of time and space, of activity and rest. 

The framework I have adopted is that balance is not so much a static state as it is a practice. Rather than being 'balanced' I am balancing. 

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