If you go into a complete don’t (don’t get up, don’t drink water, don’t eat), you’ll most likely be dead in about a week. If you do too much (like running endlessly across the Sahara), you’ll also find yourself knocking on Death’s door.
Either extreme is a movement towards death. The ideal lies somewhere in between. Yoga and health are all about finding the balance between opposing forces. Effort and rest. Elimination and assimilation. yang and yin. Day and night.
When we do not feel, when we are not aware of our inner state, the inevitable result is imbalance. Most of us have so little internal awareness that we don’t know we’re out of balance until something goes drastically wrong. As an example, most diseases spread in an acidic environment. Because we are not sensitive enough to sense when our bodies are acidic, we continue to eat foods that make our bodies even more acidic. If we could feel more deeply, we would instinctively know when our bodies are acidic and seek to bring them back into balance.
A body that is in balance yearns for what keeps it in balance. On the other hand, a body that is unbalanced craves that which unbalances it even more. So we can’t hear the predictable whine of our cravings, but we have to feel and seek guidance, either from deep within or from someone who knows better. Many things that we consider “normal”—pain, old age, senility, and perhaps even death—may actually be avoidable and unnecessary. The pains that we consider a natural function of aging are simply manifestations of imbalance. The inability to move freely, expansively, and forcefully has nothing to do directly with aging; it has to do with a lack of movement over time, along with an unbalanced diet, a rigid mind, and too-brief flirtations with Spirit.
When we are not connected to the light of our source, when our minds are dogmatically stubborn, when our diets are acidic, and when we chronically ignore the protests of our bodies by slouching in chairs all day, our bodies become unbalanced and rigid, and! So we blame our lack of mobility on a made-up villain called aging! Once you’re balanced, the job isn’t over. Whether it is the balance of the mind, body or emotions, balance cannot be achieved and forgotten. When we stand on one leg in Vrksasana, we must remain vigilant. By the time our attention ceases and we congratulate ourselves on being balanced and upright, we have already begun to fall. Keeping in balance requires as much vigilance as the first time it is achieved. Achieving and maintaining balance is the path, not the destination.
Addil Paljivala ©2008