…the art of balance
Yin and Yang.
Air, Water, Earth and Fire
Silence and Music
1 and 0
Light and the absence of light
I’m going to steal a quote from a close friend and make it my mantra…
“Life is about balance”
And I think that for me this is true because it’s something I’ll never fully master so it leaves me intrigued and wanting more.
Without sleep I would never be meaningfully awake.
Without work I could never go on vacation.
Without the pain of loss I wouldn’t appreciate what I love.
And in these oscillations back and forth, there seems to be a personal rhythm that emerges, unique to us all, that brings me to a peak resonance with the rest of existence.
Too much work and I’m depersonalized, dispassionate and numb to what I previously loved.
Too much vacation and I’m lethargic, bored and what was once awesome is now… boring.
I find that my body and mind prefer to be kept guessing.
I like to think of this as always pushing outside of a comfort zone and then, just as the comfort zone expands, I move further outside of it.
It’s a way of life that provides the minimum stress required for self-actualization
And it’s tremendously easy to mess this up.
I’m not sure why, but I’m just one of those people that overshoots on everything I do.
Exercise? Sure, I’ll start with 2 hours a day.
Love? I’ll look for an idyllic romance rather than a good date.
My guess is that many people out there can relate to this and I think it’s natural.
After all, ideals (infinite) can quickly outrun capability (finite).
And truthfully, I’m not even certain that we would benefit from completely avoiding these excesses.
As soon as I think of a completely level trajectory in life— it seems to become lifeless.
Finding the range
It’s tempting to suggest that, from my very biased perspective, there is some preferable wavelength that best represents the optimized life.
Something consistent and effective —
With this waveform I would have a fairly predictable (although dynamic) life.
Cool… sounds good.
But what about this?
Perhaps more of a Robert Frost-ish type of experience and perhaps more intriguing — although slightly less predictable. The peaks are higher but so are the valleys.
To each their own
This is the kind of “people watching” that I enjoy the most… considering wavelengths, their oscillations and appreciating them for their uniqueness.
Each person’s is more intricate than a fingerprint and all are equally valid.
For me, I’m fortunate enough to say that I’ve experimented with many wavelengths in my life.
From being a temperamental, wild person to a more consistent human being.
And what I’ve found is that it’s not necessary to sacrifice the extraordinary for the predictable. There are ways to incorporate peak experiences into life without giving up a consistent trajectory toward the things we want.
It just takes practice.
