Each day, I ask myself, "How do I maintain balance in order to live my best day ever?" As much as I try to stay balanced, I have learned that I can easily lose it. Balance may be easy to find, but it is hard to sustain. This is because we are the only ones who can do the inner work of maintaining it.
Francis Braceland writes, "We can be sure that the greatest hope for maintaining equilibrium in the face of any situation rests within ourselves."
So how do we find and maintain balance? I have discovered two tools: chakra and chant.
Chakra
The chakra—the seven main energy centers in the body that receive, absorb, and distribute life energies—are a natural starting place.
The chakra offer us a benchmark to assess our life balance. They are located along the spine, starting at the base and running upwards to the crown of the head. Each chakra radiates a specific color and energy, and relates to specific spiritual, emotional, psychological, and physical issues.
A chakra can become blocked through, and as a result can become either deficient or excessive, and therefore imbalanced. Practicing yoga poses that correspond to each chakra can release these blocks and help clear the path to more balanced living.
Simply understanding your chakra provides a framework that can help you balance out excessiveness or insufficiencies within them.
I turned to the chakra when I began to appreciate nature and how it interacts with my soul. I soon learned about The Five Element Theory (earth, air, water, fire, sound), and then discovered that they relate to the chakra like this: Earth my Body, Water my Blood, Air my Breath, and Fire my Spirit.
Chant
Chanting, or using rhythmic speaking or singing of words and sounds is another way to find balance.
Om Namah Shivaya is my favorite mantra to repeat. During and after singing this song, I feel a quiet but energized sense of equilibrium. And I learned that the elements and chakra are the syllables of Na, Ma, Shi, Va, Ya.
Om Namah Shivaya mantra uses the universal elements that govern each chakra: earth, water, fire, air, and ether. This song allows the chakra to better utilize the fundamental elements that exist in the chakra.
When we repeat this mantra, we bring the chakra into balance with our energies. If you need a real-time life balance exercise, try saying or singing 108 rounds of this mantra, or even just a few.
This mantra also reminds us that we are born perfect (siddha), whole, and balanced. Our only job in this lifetime is to remember how amazing we are! What you are experiencing through your journey as a human being is a return to balance where your energies are neither excessive nor deficient, but even.
Even your hands hold the reminder of siddha within them as each finger is aligned with an element and a chakra like this:
Thumb – Fire Solar Plexus chakra
Index finger – Air Heart chakra
Middle finger – Ether Throat chakra
Ring finger – Earth Root chakra
Pinky finger – Water Sacral chakra
Sustained balance is the key to happiness. While balance is easy to find, it is difficult to maintain. At the end of the day, it’s our responsibility to at least try.
