The word “balance” as it pertains to our lives can become a complicated goal.
For many people it means a search to even up the time spent on paid work with times spent being at home with their families. For others it means finding an equation that allows for equal parts pleasing other people and pleasing ourselves.
In Five Elements Acupuncture it is a means of restoring our wellness, of ensuring that our life energy is flowing freely through our bodies again.
Many of my clients speak with me about their quest for life balance and in the process, I often learn that what they are seeking is so flimsy in its definition that it may just flit right past them without being seen.
Balance within our bodies and balance within our minds and spirit is not just a quest for the equation of energy that must be placed here or there until we use it all up but in a fair and equitable manner divided into all our responsibilities in life.
In reality, it isn’t like that at all. It isn’t about juggling everything that you can hold all at once and feeling you have achieved it if you don’t drop anything.
I discovered this when I embarked on my own journey to learn to love myself. When I achieved that, I was able to open up my practice on the balanced principles of gentleness and presence. I had to learn to befriend emotions that didn’t feel good at the start.
I had to figure out my Element (Metal) and from there begin to work on my weakest link. I had to nourish my element, as we all must, and make it stronger.
Balance is not a question of equations of life weighed against each other. Instead, it is a means of finding the strength to trust yourself to take a journey and not get lost. It is being open to discovering what is really blocking your path to wellness and freeing you of your pain and then constantly working at it.
It is about focusing on what is important for you at this point in your life, but understanding that that focus must change as you change.
It is most of all about believing in yourself and trusting yourself that your best self will emerge and allow you to do the work and be the person you were meant.
When my clients find balance, I know when I start to work on their bodies, even before they tell me. There is a sense of inner peace and happiness that emits from them. I can feel the energy flowing unobstructed.
When your life is balanced, it isn’t full of pre-measured amounts of things that fulfill you. It contains many of those things, but it also has a bit of empty space so when new and interesting things and thoughts come along, there is a place for them to enter and be considered for inclusion in your overall life.
Balance can be very unbalanced sometimes, but that’s okay if that is where your journey has taken you. It is about knowing what is important and what can be let go without remorse or guilt.
Most of all, it is about taking care of your body without neglecting your mind or your spirit. When you reach that place, the real healing begins.
Natasha Pilgrim, practitioner of Five Element Acupuncture, has a Bachelor’s Degree in Counselling and Human Change from Jansen Newman Institute, a Bachelor’s degree in Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine from Sydney Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and a diploma of Energetic Healing from Nature Care College and has been committed to mindfulness mediation practice for many years. She runs her own clinic in Australia.