Friday, April 11, 2008

Balance

I've noticed an interesting trend since returning from Super Choices Sunday night. While I was coaching at Choices the week before, and then at the retreat for the following seven days, I was very conscious and conscientious about the food I put into my body. I cut out bread, ate no red meat and eliminated as much fat as possible from my diet. What a difference it made.

Upon return home, I've noticed it's harder to keep the bread and fat out of my diet. My willpower struggles to surface above the voice in my head whispering -- it's okay, you can have that cheese bun.

What's with that?

Author and activist, Susan Sontag wrote: “The truth is balance. However the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.”

In my struggle to find my balance between eating right, and the habit of being lazy about what I eat at home, I must balance what is true from my experience away and what is true of my experience right now. There is truth on both sides of the equation.

Choices is about creating value in my life by understanding myself and my responses to the world around me. At Choices, I have learned tools that help me respond to the world around me from a balanced place within me.

When at Choices, my mind knows I am focussing on the best of me, on doing what is best for me and on being my best.

Out here in the 'world at large', my mind can become overloaded with sensations, thoughts, feelings, experiences. In its satiated state, I am not always conscious of what is going on around and within me. It's easier for my 'critter mind', that voice of unreason within me that would rather take the sloth's route, to over ride my senses with its constant chatter.

In recognizing my critter mind is at work, I can now step forward into that place where I bring my "spirit's breath" to work for me. My spirit's breath is that voice of reason, that voice of power, of truth, of beauty within me. It is the voice that knows, above all else, I am a magnificent human being on the journey of her lifetime. My spirit voice knows, I am responsible for me. I am accountable for my life. It's my responsibility to make each moment count. To create value in each moment and to dance freely with each step I take.

I can't dance and eat cheese buns at the same time.

I'd rather dance!

Here's to a day of healthy choices. Of choices that celebrate my unique self. Of choices that celebrate with each breath the wonder and joy of being all I'm meant to be in this moment. Spectacularly, magnificently alive!

The question is: Where does your 'critter mind' undermine your 'spirit's breath' to live this one wild and precious life accountable for every step you take on your journey? Where does your 'critter mind' keep you off balance?

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