I often see a misperception about balance and awakening. The misperception is that an essential part of spiritual awakening is maintaining a certain kind of calm balance.

If we look at all the pictures of calm and balanced meditators that people post in the spiritual genre, it is easy to believe that that kind of calm balance is what we should strive for as we awaken.

I know many people do. I also know that many teachers say balance is essential and that the middle way (between doing and being/allowing) is the optimal way to live or awaken.

But from my point of view, awakening is about finding your natural balance – and living in alignment with who you truly are.

When you do, you are balanced without trying to be – because you are yourself, and you are not trying to be someone else or live according to someone else’s perception of balance.

You simply live as who you are – and who you came here to be before you were programmed into culture’s perceptions of who you should and should not be.

(We have all been programmed so it’s not personal).

We must become unbalanced to find our natural balance

We all have our natural balance. But to find that balance, we sometimes need to become very unbalanced. 

Because to find it, we must free ourselves from the layers of programming that cover up who we are, the things that are causing us to be unbalanced in the first place.

That will not happen unless we are thrown off-center and challenged. The programming is deeply rooted and will not let go by itself or come up to the surface unless we do something that rocks the boat, or unless we are challenged. 

We can do our best to stay centered throughout our awakening, but we can’t awaken without being uncomfortable or off-center. 

So, there is no way to be calm and balanced all the time and awaken simultaneously. But we can find our natural balance by awakening.

Your natural balance

What our natural balance looks like is also different for all of us. What is balance for me can be unbalanced for you. It all depends on who we are.

And that is the beauty of diversity.

We are not here to be, think, look or act the same. We are here to be ourselves and contribute our beautiful selves and our gifts to this planet.

Letting go of the concepts of balance

I think it’s sad when I see people turn to spirituality and to teachings that could help free them from the old programming, only to start putting new concepts and restrictions on themselves and others that don’t free them at all.

 
An example is when people decide that what a teacher or someone else says is the only right thing. So, in this case, if the teacher talks about balance in a certain way, they believe that what the teacher says is the right way to be balanced. Then they start trying to live up to that idea of balance – instead of allowing the teachings to guide them back to their own inner wisdom and guidance system – which is the only place where they will find their natural balance. And learn to trust themselves again.

There is not ONE right way to be balanced. There are several ways to be balanced.

There are also several ways to awaken and get to the same destination (the awakened state). And no path is right for everyone.

I wish you all the best in finding YOUR balance and path and shining your light into this world.