Emotional balance can seem as unattainable as transporting to a mystical far off land. Sometimes it just doesn’t seem possible to deal with emotions in a balanced way.
I wish I could tell you from experience how to achieve and master this art, but in truth I’m still practicing. I think we all are.
When we learn balance poses in yoga, it can give us a lot of information on how balance really works. Let’s take tree pose for example.
When we stand in tree pose we are standing on one leg with the other leg lifted. If we were to feel our standing foot and ankle while balancing in tree pose we would notice that it is constantly shifting back and forth, finding balance. It is not static, it is always moving back and forth, taking in information from one side and the other to stay balanced.
This is an unconscious and natural process of our body learning and finding balance through the experience of being unbalanced.
In terms of emotional balance it seems we practice in much the same way. We can find a sense of presence and grounding through our daily practices (our standing pose) and when life brings us emotional challenges we sway back and forth exploring what it will take to balance.
As we move along our journey through the chakra system we recognize that emotions are energy in motion that move through our bodies. They give us information about our world around us and our own inner experience.
Emotions are not something to be avoided and denied. In fact, when we don’t acknowledge them they linger in our bodies to be activated later on. When we do acknowledge them, we are honoring the wisdom they provide and allow them to share space with us.
When they have done their job they move on through. Letting ourselves feel, experience and even share emotions in healthy ways leads to balance. It is sometimes an emotional release that allow us to see things from a balanced perspective.
In the chakra system, the heart chakra is the balancing point. It is in the middle between the crown and the root…between heaven and earth. It assimilates information that comes up through our physical environment, emotions and actions with information that comes down from Divine Consciousness, our mind and communication.
It processes this information and guides us to make decisions and choices based on all aspects of our being. When our heart chakra is open it guides us naturally to balance.
When we are rooted in our metaphorical standing pose we can observe changes in emotion with an open heart and watch them rather than react from them.
Emotions become a passenger in the car instead of the driver. We can use our breath to soothe our nervous system and allow our bodies to calm down and find balance. Then we can respond from a balanced place rather than a reactive stance.
Starting now, let us tune in to our emotions and allow the natural process of balance to happen within us. From a grounded and connected place let us open our hearts and allow our emotions to guide us along our path💚