Balance • Growth • Renewal

Look around outside: what is coming to life? Now look inside and ask the same question: what is coming to life inside of me?

The energies around us are quickening and heating up. Life continues to move us through ceaseless ups and downs, stops and starts, and underneath it all there we are, experiencing it.

One of the gifts of Spring (Equinox) is the stabilizing gift of balance. Balance is never a “set it and forget it point”, have you noticed? Rather, balance is a snapshot in time, a moment of level, energy between things less balanced, and to find balance ultimately means committing to shifting into balance when we notice we have lost it. It have been helpful for me to replace the word BALANCE with BALANCING.  For when balance is achieved, it soon changes and requires awareness and adjustments to keep the scales even.

One way to do this is to note the unique ways we feel out of balance, then reverse engineering it. We will work with our inner awareness and discover this for ourselves in our first meeting. Naming things can have tremendous power. 

Homeostasis is one way that we can physically sense and appreciate balancing. Homeostasis, from the Greek words for “same” and “steady,” refers to any process that living things use to actively maintain fairly stable conditions necessary for survival.

Everything living thing and system seeks homeostasis. Each of our physiological systems (hormonal, circulatory, respiratory, etc.) is built for balance. When a system is out of balance, its work is to find and restore it. Part of what we do as massage therapists is to invite the body into a deep state of rest and relaxation so it can achieve this balance, and then set to work restoring our natural inner states of health and vitality. Our bodies naturally know how to do this; often our “heady” way of being in life simply needs to step aside and let the body have time, space and a safe invitation to move in a healthful direction.

Similarly, the energies running within our family, work and or household systems (not to mention our mental, emotional and spiritual systems) shift and arrange themselves to find whatever “snapshot” of stability any given moment or circumstance requires. Have you noticed that BIG exertion requires BIG rest, or a mean spirited exchange beckons a kind hearted apology?

Each of us hold a tremendous composition of experiences. We hold unique expressions of energies that are always in need of balancing: light, dark, night, up, down, calm, busy, stagnant, creative, open, closed … the list goes on … it’s only natural to feel this wild spectrum of dynamic, seemingly opposing energies. But underneath it all, you and I are––more accurately––the quiet witnesses, the interconnected permeating stillness behind the curtain of drama. The more we can be anchored to that ground of our being, the more diverse, playful and authentic our lives and expressions can be. It’s freeing to think about that. And it’s vital to practice touching into that space if we want lasting peace and deeper wisdom.

Another gift of spring? New growth.

Some of the same plants come back to visit us in the garden, coneflower, e.g., but we know that the plant we see each spring is actually a whole new expression of the same core root system. Our lives unfold from the roots up. You and I are diverse, dynamic and ever changing … we grow and change, but we, like flowers in the garden, are grounded in the simple, unchanging bedrock of the energy of our being. Our expressions, relationships, our ways of involvement and impact are what could be considered our “blossoms”.

It’s amazing to me that there is a consistent creative force — God, Source Energy, call is what you will — that pushes out new growth every spring, every moment in fact, year after year in us just as in the living ecology we are a part of. And no matter how “stuck” you think you are, or how permanently “messed up” you consider your life or your world to be, you can trust things will not stay the same. We are part of a dynamic, creative unfolding.

Our self care is also a growing, dynamic aspect of our lives. 

The cozy rituals that kept us sane in winter might or might not suit us in spring. What would it be like to consider self care in the same way you may consider your wardrobe — seasonally? Can self care flow with the energies of the seasons … how might we listen to and explore our deep currents of health and joy? What can we allow more of … and where do we need to be flexible, or more strongly disciplined? It’s a dance, and I think it’s important to ask: what kind of TLC do we need?

What would it feel like to recommit to listening to that still small voice that is always leading you to your highest life and spiritual expressions and heart?

Time moves so fast. We can choose to speed up or slow down at any moment. Like the energies around us in the natural world, we enjoy fast and slow, mild and harsh, newness and decay.

Cycles have the potential to offer sanctuary because we can trust that what we miss today will come again another day, or season. Truly: to everything: turn, turn turn.

What would it feel like to spend time outside in an intentional way, and welcome spring with your own inner ritual of sorts? Where you growing, appreciating balance, seeking renewal … where are you blooming?

Feel our beautiful Earth, and feel YOURSELF as an extension of it, and let the sunshine warm and soften your mind body and soul.

The world needs you, just as you are, moving about doing your magic.