Life: A Balancing Act By Louise Applebome

By Louise Applebome

I recently emerged from my comfort zone of home and hearth to fly from Dallas to New York City to attend a funeral and to be with and support family and friends.

It’s no wonder that the trek threw me off balance and off of my game. For three days, my life was helter-skelter. My teaching schedule, my personal yoga practice, and my writing, cooking, walking, and reading routines were all thrown off course. So, my physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychic instincts were also a bit at sea.

And, when I returned to Dallas, and, fortuitously, had signed up to take an online yoga class on “balance” the very next day (long before I had any idea I’d be traveling to New York for a funeral), it seemed like kismet.  

I had many concrete reasons to have veered away from equilibrium and equanimity and to require help to restore it. 

And, at that first moment when I lay down on my back on the yoga mat and surrendered into gravity by letting my bones drop and my mind empty, an enormous relief and release washed over me. 

But one need not have “trauma” or unexpected deaths and/or travel to knock them off balance. It happens to all of us every day amidst the juggling and the demands of life.

Life is a continual balancing act. 

Whether it’s a minor inconvenience or annoyance or something overriding, it’s important to pay attention and to reset back to center and balance with regularity. And, if we don’t, the imbalance escalates into bigger disturbances, and getting back on track becomes more and more difficult. It’s a domino effect. Roller coasters, too.

Staying balanced requires ongoing maintenance. 

The need to stop doing and to move into “no-thing” mode was so clearly illuminated because of the obvious disruption in a life seemingly calm and under control. But, what also had a spotlight shown on it was our consistent need to move into “no-thing” mode in order to reboot, restore balance, and to stockpile new resources for coping, compassion, and collaboration amidst and amongst our fellow human beings. 

I was struck by how we lose our way again and again.  We lose the essence of what matters and get distracted by pablum and desire. Ambition can also separate us from our true nature. Striving is also often misdirected. Cultural and societal pressure can cause us to lose our way. We may forget that our “way” isn’t defined or determined by any outside sources. We each have a distinct and peculiar “way” and can only find and follow that “way” by taking time in stillness and quiet to tap into our innermost selves in order to recover from life’s zaniness. 

Namasté

Louise Applebome, 69, is a Certified Yoga Instructor in Dallas. After “retiring” from a vibrant and varied professional career, she became a yoga teacher. She teaches all her classes on Zoom right now and accepts students, young or older, from wherever they are, both geographically and in their pursuit of a yoga practice. Louise will help you stay fit and flexible, and release tension, aches & pains from the body…and the mind. Her yoga studio in Dallas is del norte yoga. You can reach out to her at [email protected].