What Does it Mean to Balance Worlds?

Posted in Self Improvement |  Email This Post | by James Rick

Life is balancing worlds: internal and external.
How much time should be spent in one place or another depends on the context of the situation. For example – if are in the company of a good friend it’s better to be engaged sharing the experience of the external world with your friend. And if you are faced with a problem, such as you are late or someone insults you – better to move into your internal world and let go of stress or anger associated with external circumstances. Choosing where to move your attention based on the context will enable you to enjoy people’s company more and make more calm rational decisions.

HOW DO YOU DEVELOP THE ABILITY TO MOVE ATTENTION?

To know the right context is an exercise of judgment and to even be in a position to judge internal and external states requires the ability to objectively observe both. Objective observation is achieved through detachment or letting go of both internal and external demands and simply watching what happens. This does require effort – and maintaining a state of neutral observation requires practice. Withdraw and observe. Then depending on the context of the situation choose how and where you want to engage life.

For example – if you’re feeling overwhelmed or anxious, this is a sign of engagement in too many places. Your forces are scattered – your brain power is not organized. Your first temptation is to try to finish all the tasks that are making you feel overwhelmed. Or distract yourself with something more stimulating (like TV). This is actually counter productive. Your first priority should be to return to a more resourceful state of mind. You must withdraw, but the kind of withdrawal I’m talking about is not a two week vacation. It comes in the form of a few minutes of consciousness. Just feeling what you feel without avoiding it. Letting thoughts and emotions flow through you rather than clinging to them. It can be helpful to simply write everything down that’s on your mind until the thoughts begin to settle. Then return to just feeling and observing. Because you are no longer being triggered by thoughts or events and simply letting them flow – you will eventually return to a calmer state of balance. This is a resourceful state, one that will enable you to be much more effective when you refocus to complete the tasks at hand. Not only is this a more enjoyable state of mind, but healthier too.

A PHYSICAL VACATION DOES NOT EQUAL BALANCE

The practice of zooming in and out is a conscious decision is something far too many people put off. In their mind they imagine a vacation as the answer – because in their minds they imagine themselves far away from where they are. They imagine themselves zooming out away from their problems. But many times traveling somewhere physically doesn’t do much because a person just carries their problems with them wherever they go. They remain zoomed in, their lens still focuses on the bent blade of grass.

A MENTAL VACATION IS IMMEDIATELY ACCESSIBLE

A mental vacation is immediately accessible, the moment you decide to withdraw. Go somewhere you won’t be disturbed for about 15 minutes. (In time when you increase your ability to focus, you can achieve a mental vacation even in a crowded room.) Concentrate on your breath. You might immediately notice there was some tenseness in your shoulders or stomach that you weren’t aware of before. Let it go. If you are just starting, its very helpful to have a blank sheet (or in my case, many blank sheets!) of paper and a pen in front of you. Getting your mind on paper is an excellent way to restore balance. You can even prompt yourself with questions like:

Identifying Problems:

• “What am I worried about?”
• “What else concerns me?”

Focusing on Solution

• “What is my ultimate goal here?”
• “What’s most important to me?”
• “What is the highest value thing I could focus on?”

In my own experience I have found many times after doing this exercise I’ll have 5 or 10 sheets of papers filled with notes, diagrams and questions. I put them side by side and this causes me to make associations I didn’t make before. Using this method has resulted in many breakthroughs both philosophically as well as in business. Once you have everything on paper and you’ve started the process of solutions oriented focus you’re ready to engage the world with joy and effectiveness.

BE OBSERVANT OF YOUR NEEDS TO BALANCE

It’s not hard to focus on the external world. Open your eyes and you’re there. School, work, friends, family – there is enough stuff going on ‘out there’ to ensure you never have to really go deep inside. But lack of internal focus will cause the body to make itself heard. Sluggishness, tenseness and even illness. Yet again society from has an answer for that as well – cigarettes, coffee, alcohol & pills. The act of not listening to yourself creates a steep imbalance of outward focus.

To correct the imbalance is far easier that you might imagine.

• Create a little time to relax at home and do nothing but have a piece of pen and paper in front of you.
• Take the little bits and pieces of time when you might found yourself waiting impatiently in line or in traffic.
• Find yourself intrigued by petty situations that used to annoy you by asking why in the grand scheme of things (zooming out) you should really care.
• Ask yourself what am I feeling right now and why? (prompting your attention to go within) And as the feelings change moment by moment with conscious awareness, keep prompting yourself to remain attentive to your feelings.

A whole person is one that lives with one leg firmly planted in the internal world, one leg firmly planted in the outer world and the awareness to judge when they leaned too much one way or the other.

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