Ballancing a busy life.

Finding Balance

“If there is a reason for keeping a wall very quiet, choose a pattern that works well all over without pronounced lines…Put very succinctly, architectural effect depends upon a nice balance of horizontal, vertical and oblique. No rules can say how much of each; so nothing can take the place of feeling and good judgment.”

                                  William Morris

         There is a trick to finding balance in one’s environment. I don’t know exactly what the trick is, but I know balance when I see it. Recently, I saw a picture in a magazine of someone’s living room. The walls were entirely covered with framed photographs from waist level all the way to the ceiling. I felt claustrophobic just looking at the picture. I like a good bit of empty space on walls. Space quiets my busy mind, while sitting in a room with too much ‘stuff’ is distracting; especially, too much stuff against busy wall paper.

Sometimes, you can tell how a person lives by how they arrange food on a plate. If the plate is entirely covered, and the various foods are spilling onto each other and hanging off the plate, that person is likely to stuff a room, too. On the other hand, if there is space between foods, and the plate is visible between, they are more likely to allow for empty space in their environment and in their life.

         Finding balance is almost always challenging, whether in a room, or in life. Too much activity is jarring to the nervous system, making us jumpy, irritable and exhausted. Too little stimulation is dulling to the senses, and outright inertia is a self-perpetuated plague. Every person’s ‘normal’ is different. Newton’s first law of physics says, ‘a body in motion tends to stay in motion, while a body at rest tends to stay at rest’. If we are sedentary by nature, an active life requires that we first get past our own resistance to activity. The same is true if we are a person with a lot of energy. We resist rest.

         Overall mental, physical, and spiritual health requires balance. First we must become aware of our pattern, and then make adjustments to our daily routine to bring equilibrium. First: consciousness; next: action. And always allow time for rest.

                                  Shalom,

                                  Jane