Hand balancing... a parallel for life

Recently I've taken up head stands and hand balancing. Right now I'm really rubbish, I can't hold myself away from the wall for more than a second at a time but I'm persevering. 

Why?

Because I love the way it makes me feel. I love the notion of being upside down turning the word on its head, experiencing things from a different point of view. I also love the simplicity of the experience, my form in alignment, of progress and of feeling my body grow stronger as one. 

As I was upside down this morning, I thought of something. A parallel for life.

When I hit the sweet spot in my balance, with the alignment of my body stacked correctly within the centre of gravity. Then hand balancing seems timeless and effortless. The effort only comes from constantly bringing myself back to neutral, the constantly needing to realign myself with that sweet spot when I travel too far forward or backwards from the mark.

It all comes down to incredible subtleties of movement that can serve to keep me aligned or throw me off course. A slight shift in weight, the spread of my fingers and contact with the floor, a deeper focus in my mind, a soft gaze, a braced yet relaxed form.

The more I practice, the more effortless it becomes and the more time I can spend in my sweet spot. 

This is what we should all be aiming for in life... maximising time in the sweet spot. The pockets in our lives that feel amazingly effortless, that flow with grace, almost to good to be true such that our minds question it and we tell ourselves it can't be that simple. But it is that simple and with the courage to let go of expectation and with daily practice we can spend more and more time there.

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