October 2013 issue: Returning to balance

Living a balanced life is a matter of prioritising, of knowing what is important and then giving it the due attention.

Complete Wellbeing October 2013 issue cover -- Balance
October 2013 issue

Balanced advice

Every coin has two sides and every magnet, two poles. Every bird has two wings, and every boat, two oars. This finely tuned universe we inhabit is based upon polarities. Male/female, hot/cold, up/down, high/low, day/night, black/white, light/dark—opposites exist to define and balance each other. This play of interdependent dichotomies is the fundamental basis of life on planet Earth.

Therefore, to stay in balance, we need to work, but we also need to play. We need to give but we also need to receive. We need to laugh but we also need to cry. Yet, all of us fall out of balance in one way or the other. And the result is disturbance and disorder.

According to the ancient Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang, all illness, whether physical or emotional, is always the outcome of some imbalance in the body or the mind. And unless the balance is restored, healing is impossible.

We know this intrinsically. We sense that life is a delicate balance of Yin and Yang. But somehow, in spite of this knowledge, we have come to accept imbalance as the norm and balance as an impossible ideal. This belief is what keeps most people unhappy, unfulfilled, unhealthy, and messed up.

Happily, returning to balance is much easier than you think—as we demonstrate in this issue’s cover story, written by bestselling author and creator of the Corporate Sufi concept Azim Jamal. According to him, living a balanced life is a matter of prioritising, of knowing what is important and then giving it the due attention. “Life Balance is a state of feeling and being. You know intuitively that you are doing the right things, and you’re able to navigate through the many opportunities and challenges. You know what is important to you and you are able to choose appropriately,” he writes.

Using metaphors as well as real-life examples, Jamal takes us, one by one, through the various aspects of life that tend to go out of balance. Along the way, he suggests how we can restore the order and rhythm that has gone missing from those aspects. I reckon you will find great clarity in Jamal’s advice, which is, in my opinion, quite well-balanced.

Stand-up comedian and bestselling author Ellen DeGeneres says, “My point is, life is about balance. The good and the bad. The highs and the lows. The pina and the colada.” What say, time for a pina colada?

Read the full story here.

Manoj Khatri
Manoj Khatri has spent the last two decades learning, teaching and writing about wellbeing and mindful living. He has contributed over 1500 articles for several newspapers and magazines including The Times of India, The Economic Times, The Statesman, Mid-Day, Bombay Times, Femina, and more. He is a counseling therapist and the author of What a thought!, a critically acclaimed best-selling book on self-transformation. An award-winning editor, Manoj runs Complete Wellbeing and believes that "peace begins with me".

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