Five Minute Friday: BALANCE
Balance is misleading. Keeping balance looks like something that takes supreme caution — being exquisitely tuned to each breath, each movement, each thought.
The irony is that balance takes a certain amount of letting go of all those microscopic “what if this doesn’t work?” types of thoughts.
If you have ever paddle boarded, you probably know what I mean. Once you’re on the board, the process of staying on the board and out of the water takes an orchestration of your physical body, your mental senses, and whatever goes on in our inner ears to give us the sense of balance.
I have only been paddle boarding once, sadly, but that one time gave me the sense of what it takes to stay balanced. It isn’t what you would think watching paddle boarders from shore. It takes a wide stance (to give yourself a more solid base). It takes looking ahead and where you’re going rather than down at the water around your feet (yes, the water you could potentially end up in if you lose your balance!).
Most of all, it requires trusting yourself.
Just like in other situations where we must seek balance, if we spend the whole time second-guessing our choices, we are likely to sink emotionally.
Welcome to this week’s Five Minute Friday. Our instructions, via creator Kate Motaung: “Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation.” (But I can’t resist spell checking, as you can imagine.)
Wife of one, Mom of two, Friend of many. My pronouns are she/her/hers.
Trusting oneself…easier said than done. But so important for us to do. I’m in the 40 spot this week.
Exactly, Tara. I’ll look forward to visiting yours!