I often think that life is like the vaudeville act where the performer spins plates on a line of sticks. By they time they’ve put all the plates up – the ones at the start of the line are starting to topple over. The rest of the performance is spent going up and down the line re-spinning all the plates. After a while it all gets too much and you stand by and watch them all crash onto the floor.
Or like juggling, only you’re trying to juggle too many balls at the one time, and they’re not rubber, they’re glass.
If you want to see a classic juggling performance watch Chris Bliss on America’s Got Talent.
Anyway, if stress is getting to you, the thing you need to do to regain a healthy perspective is to become grounded.
Stand on both legs and begin taking deep breaths. Breath deeply and fully, focusing only on the inhale and exhale. Nothing else matters. This is a perfect time to do a little tai chi. It seems that people who improve physical balance find an improvement in life balance. Interesting!
Perspective is needed to help you determine what is actually important in your life. Take a few moments to determine the
- most important parts of your life – your health, family, career, finances …
- what is least important – TV, texting, twittering, trolling through Facebook posts …?
Focus more on the important things and less on the unimportant.
Practice standing on one leg
Maybe you can get more balance in your life by practicing standing on first one leg and then the bother. It’s a useful exercise.
Here’s what to do.
Relax onto the supporting leg. Bend your supporting knee a little more, then feel all the weight sink onto the foot. Drop the shoulders and relax your abdomen (thereby lowering your center of gravity).
Then take a long, slow deep breath so it actually feels like you are breathing into your abdomen; and keep breathing this way.
Soon you’ll feel solid and connected with the ground.
A minute’s worth on each leg is probably enough.
If you do this at work, people might look at you and think you’ve gone nuts. Pass on this email and let them know what you’re doing and why.
Tai Chi
Tai chi helps immeasurably with finding life balance.
In fact I reckon tai chi programs should be mandatory in some offices, particularly call centres.
Check out http://www.fitandhealthyonline.com/go/taichi for more information on the concept of easily introducing just a few minutes of profound movement into your life each day.
In the mean time stay tuned, highly tuned and instead of sitting on your bronze or rushing around like a headless chook, either stand still for a while or spend a few minutes each doing tai chi.
Regards and best wishes
John Miller
