Balance is a Life Skill

Happy New Year and Happy New Decade! Now is the perfect time to assess whether your life feels in balance or if it’s time for a few tweaks to your routine. Accept what looks like balance today could be very different than it was even a few short months ago. Our yoga practice mirrors what’s happening during the other twenty-three hours of our day. By tapping into yogic principles, you can find the perfect balance for you at this particular time in your life.

In our physical Hatha yoga practice, we seek to balance the masculine solar energy (‘Ha’) and (‘tha’) the feminine lunar energy that exists within all of us. By following the guiding principle of Yoga Sutra 2.46, Sthira Sukham Asanam, which means the posture should be steady and comfortable, we are working with the principles of effort and ease. In this way, your yoga asana and pranayama practices will bring your physical body into symmetry and sustain your mental focus. By finding balance on your yoga mat, you can create a sense of wholeness in your life.

Yoga asanas like Vrksasana (Tree Pose), Virabhadrasana III (Warrior 3), and Garudasana (Eagle) all require you to balance on one leg, maintain a sustained point of focus with your gaze, and breathe evenly in order to remain steady. These types of poses, which work to align the left and right sides of your body, force you to quiet your mind and find equilibrium or you’ll topple over. It’s also an opportunity to notice where we feel steady and strong and where we need some support.

If we take these same principles and apply them to our daily life, we can assess what’s running smoothly and what needs some bolstering. The earth is always shifting beneath our feet and it’s a process of constant adjustment to remain in balance. Some days you’re like an Olympic gymnast, sticking the landing after a perfect routine on the balance beam and others you’re like Bambi, wobbling on untested legs. Accepting that balance is a lifelong dance allows you to practice and transform accordingly. By taking the time to nurture your individual challenges through yoga, you have the opportunity to achieve the perfect equilibrium for you. That’s the beauty of yoga: it’s flexible and you can adapt it based upon what you need to bring yourself back into balance. This week, we offer you four unique classes designed to help you find balance in your body and your life.