Seeking "Balance" is a Formula for Flatlining Your Life and Work

We hear a lot of talk around achieving "Balance" and "Life-work balance," but is balance an outcome we truly want to achieve? Words mean everything. They can focus or distract, empower or overthrow, heal or hurt. They represent ideas, energy and intention of the soul behind them. As such, we need to exert caution in what we say, think and do since words are so powerful. That being said, let us look at the word "balance."

It represents a fixed word implying no motion. It represents rest, stability, equilibrium, a flat line. Consider of a set of traditional scales where weights are represented on either side. What happens when they are balanced? If your children are on a teeter-totter and balanced, are they moving, having fun? Or are they perhaps stuck? Can balance be maintained or will motion eventually occur? Is it smart to set ourselves up for something that is against life principles and doomed to failure?

Nature and life exhibit motion, direction and cycles, so why would we try to achieve something that just has no motion present? There is a saying by BJ Palmer, "life is motion and motion is life." So, by the time we achieve balance in our bodies, we have expired. No healthy cell in our body is lifeless or in balance. There is always the requirement for order, reconstruction and re-creation which requires energy. The current word we use in health care is allostasis. Which according to Wikipedia is "essential in order to maintain internal viability amid changing conditions."¹

Is balance healthy for an organization or business? Is a business/organization growing when it reaches a "balance?" Is it a healthy sign? If you apply this concept to yourself - can you personally grow if you are "in balance" or is it when we are slightly off balance that new things reveal themselves? When I think of balance, I think of coasting along. Nothing really changes. I believe when nothing changes before we know it we get bit by the boredom bug. The boredom bug is when life becomes bland with a loss of enjoying the vast textures and experiences of life. Life's sweetness occurs with some level of friction or resistance.

It is that variation between two points that dictates how we discern our environment. For example it is how we see the difference between objects through their shapes, shadows, shades of color, and the same goes for smells and odors, textures, tastes and sounds. Internally, the presence of our blood pressure indicates we have a lack of balance as the pressure is a result of the pumping action of the heart meeting the resistance of the walls of the vascular tree. To discern temperature we need two differing points to compare. For us to walk upright we cannot be balanced. We actually have to fall forward, and move one leg ahead to counter the body from dropping.

About Harmony

When "harmonizing within the body," the following conditions are present as proposed by Sterling (2004), who puts forth six interrelated principles that underlie allostasis:

1. Organisms are designed to be efficient.
2. Efficiency requires reciprocal trade-offs.
3. Efficiency also requires being able to predict future needs.
4. Such prediction requires each sensor to adapt to the expected range of input.
5. Prediction also demands that each effector adapt its output to the expected range of demand.
6. Predictive regulation depends on behavior whilst neural mechanisms also adapt.²

When we consider the principles above, we see how they can fit in other areas of life such as to relationships, work and community. First, become aware of your thinking and language in practice with staff and patients. Our thoughts dictate our behavior and actions. For example, what is your mission statement and does it reflect a congruent and harmonized representation of your values? Where in your practice is your thinking "balanced" (stuck, unable to change)? I have coached doctors who are so fixed on their procedures there is no room to adapt and harmonize to the situation at hand. As a result they appear inflexible and rigid. As I like to say, "firm in principle, flexible in procedure." Are there areas perhaps in your intake paperwork, staff training, your own examination, doctor's report, or office visit that you need to review and perhaps take a step back or sideways?

[pb]For example, one of my clients did not want to "adjust to the world," rather he wanted to have a nice paced practice and provide the best adjustment on each and every visit. With his choice of technique, there was more time required for assessment and outcome post adjustment. When we looked at his mission statement, it was not in harmony with his goal as it stated, "to serve as many people as possible in my community with the best chiropractic care." He also wanted a wellness practice, but when I looked at his intake form, the first question was on describing pain. Once he worked on getting clear on what he really wanted, he then was able to harmonize his mission statement to his values, style of practice and forms. The practice began to grow again.

So, why would we want to program ourselves with balance - implying no growth or movement and that which is incongruent with life? No wonder it is so difficult to search for then attain and maintain. If we look at the word "harmony" it implies synchronization, coherence, congruence and coordination. Harmony represents a synchronous dance between tense and relaxed moments. It really is this congruous, compatible thought, feeling and behavior. Harmony in music comes from the organization, timing and placing of notes, including rests to create order. This can be applied in sports, business, families, communities and toward ourselves.

Is your practice growing and "in harmony with the environment?" If you gain an income from your community, how are you giving back to your region? Or are you "in-balance?" Are you allotting time to develop the "self" [you] in practice? I hit a wall a few years ago in that I was constantly busy – and loving it. It wasn't until I had a life-threatening experience that I looked at what I was really doing. It was like running an engine on full, all of the time. While this is not good for the engine, it is also not sustainable. I was not in harmony with life principles.

All life requires time for growth and repair, and there is a rest and active stage. Are you taking the time to harmonize on-time with down-time? Activity with rest? Growth with repair? Plants do not survive without the harmony of air, sun, water and soil. Too much of one thing or too little of another, throws them from expressing their ideal life expression.

As doctors, we set the stage and the example for our staff, patients and community. It does not mean we need to subscribe to an unattainable standard. It does mean we should reflect, review and fine-tune what we do, how we do it and how we communicate. There is nothing wrong with also carefully sharing the struggle in how difficult some things may be for you. For example, some of my coaching clients are not their ideal weight. While they are endeavoring to drop excess pounds, they can relate to those patients who are working on similar issues.

Harmonized groups can exhibit some friction, but in a way or at a level that works. The harmony is productive. Passionate discourse can be harmonious when people can come together to have spirited discussions. Their energy is going into the relationship and it may at times move forward, backwards, sideways or temporarily pause. When is inner harmony achieved? Is it when we are in the moments of peace and contentment? When we're aware of our self? How do you recognize your experience of harmony? How does it show up in your body, in your thinking?

Life might express with ease or in-flow. Some speak of being in the zone. It may express through being lost in the moment where you lose track of time and space. You might be more creative or express a wider range of solutions to everyday experiences. Perhaps you will be more present and be able to decompress from your day.

How's your life-work balance working out for you? By virtue of thinking about life-work balance aren't you actually thinking about what you do not have or need to get, which means we are in fact not in balance? We work from the negative when in this pattern. Rather, consider harmonizing life-work. You may prefer the dance. Your focus can encompass the mindfulness of moving energy to or from one area of life to the other.

References:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allostasis
2. Sterling, P. and Eyer, J., 1988, Allostasis: A new paradigm to explain arousal pathology. In: S. Fisher and J. Reason (Eds.), Handbook of Life Stress, Cognition and Health. John Wiley & Sons, New York.