What is Balance?

An essay by Yaara Lokits

When you think of balance, what comes to mind? What do you imagine?

For most of us, balance translates into feeling joyous and happy. 

However balance means the middle ground between two ends. Just like sitting on the swing at the playground, sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down. Unless there’s a much heavier or lighter object on the other end, there’s always movement.

Therefore when we think of balance, shouldn’t we accept it may contain hard emotions and sensations along with joy and happiness? Up and down? 

Instead, reading online will find that balance means emotional stability. What does it even mean? Can it be that balance, just like perfection, is yet another western unachievable goal, that we keep running toward and can never reach, just like the rainbow?

Life is like a great wave. Until it hits the shore, the water goes up and down in what seems to be an endless movement. We imagine balance as this perfect, non issue experience, but balance as the word’s meaning, is that there are two sides to this stability. And stability is closer in our imagination to a non moving object.

If I would ask you to draw an apple, you’re most likely to draw this perfect round apple that has no bruises nor spots. Have you ever seen such an apple? Such an apple exists only in fairytales (which may also be poisoned), just like this perfect balanced emotion.

In real life, apples and balance, both have unexpected experiences.

If you feel your life is unbalanced, are you really looking at your life or at this very moment? And if I would ask you to take one step back, to go out of this moment and search your mind through your days, weeks and months, can you then see that your life contains ups and downs?

If you’re experiencing a difficult period, it may be harder to reach the happy memories that may have happened not too long ago. It’s the way our mind is built, in difficult times our perspective becomes narrow. That’s OK. We’re all human, all suffering. Even if you experience a great period in your life and would try reaching the sad times you’ve had before it may be scary and also feel like, why would I do that? “It may take me back.”

No matter what you’re experiencing right now, think of a time when you felt the opposite. It can be minutes, hours or weeks, months. Sometimes labeling a period as this or that makes it harder to see the small changes that happen every moment. Can you remember when you felt the opposite? 

In a way, aren’t we all already balanced, trying to reach the fairytale perfect apple? You can see the rainbow from where you stand, trying to reach it is impossible, trying will get you disappointed. From where you stand, although sometimes hard, there’s always balance in your life. A colorful wave of never ending movement.