The Journey Back to Balance

Inside each of us exists an inner compass that is designed to point to truth. In many ways we have been taught to turn off our internal compass or to not trust it. In fact, we’ve been made to feel silly for saying we “sense” something is off. If you do not listen to this urging from within your gut, you will end up in places you never would have chosen to go to. The most likely place is your past. You need to have an intimate personal relationship with your inner compass and, even then, it must be fine-tuned. This takes practice and determination to not compromise what you learn along the way. Your compass will become your guide to help you know when you are running your life in or out of balance. This can be a life-saver because as we know dis-ease in the body can manifest into literal disease to your body, mind and/or spirit. Your body houses your inner compass. The way I know I am out of balance is from the messages my body gives me. This may show up as sickness, emotional strain, the inability to focus, a lack of drive, a feeling of disconnect from others, lack of creativity, pain or exhaustion just to name to few. Once you understand that your body, mind and spirit are all trying to help you, you can learn to interpret these messages into opportunities for change! The funny thing is that most of us don’t even ask what’s wrong. Why do I feel this way? Is there something I am not giving myself? How do I get it? Instead, we tell ourselves we aren’t good enough to get our needs and wants met. We get angry because the world won’t give something to us. We act angry and put-out. We spend our lives waiting… and waiting… never to be fulfilled. It’s still amazing to me that we think this is the best solution. What trained us to disregard our basic needs and wants? Eventually, we find ourselves living in a world where we move in and out of a state of trance (a half conscious state, between awake and asleep). Hypnotherapists have hypothesized that we are in trance nearly 40 seconds out of every minute. Other research suggests it may be as much as 90 percent of our lives. Can you imagine how many moments in the now we must be missing? Our only power to make change is in the now. If we are in a trance state of living in the future or the past, life is just slipping by. Being in balance allows us to be present, awake and alive; able to receive our blessings and to value our birthrights. It seems we just suffer, living and reliving the same unhealthy patterns day after day. If something in our environment scares us into believing that a part of us won’t be accepted because of shame, fear or something else, we will suppress the impulse to grow. Instead of moving forward, we hold back the urge to release energy that has been sparked in us by another. Sadly, we have become the prison guards of our own pain and now we are the only ones who hold the key to let it out. Letting yourself out by letting go is where your true strength lies. When it comes to balance, incongruence of the inner child and the adult is how you are knocked off our set point. You may say you know who you are, but if your actions don’t show it, your reality will expose the incongruence and you will become a sitting target to be attacked. This equates to a prison. If we stay in a place of refuge for too long, it becomes a habit. Thus, if self-protection is not addressed, it becomes a fixed state; the walls will be built by your own hands/mind, and a prison will be constructed. It will feel like a permanent structure in which you can hide. As we grow, we must free this energy by releasing the child within - allowing ourselves to fully embrace our true selves, both adult and inner child, becoming one whole being. That is strength, a balanced self! One very important step that so many overlook is to check into our bodies for data and information. This process is much like the process of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. You are going through a change process in your life. Sometimes you can’t see out of the cocoon, and you have to tune into the sensations of your body to find your way out. Your body’s sensations are the feelings of being out of balance. They are telling you that you have drifted too far off your set point. This is your inner compass. When monarch butterflies are migrating, they use the magnetic pull of the earth’s poles as a secondary navigation system. They sense the magnetic fields of the earth to make sure they arrive home safe and sound. When butterflies are off course, they are able to sense that they are out of alignment with where they are meant to go and adjust their route accordingly; they “feel” their destiny and let nothing stop them from finding it. We are similar in many ways. Just like the butterfly, we need and want to fulfill our destiny. And we have numerous messages that are directing us back to our place of balance. What a gift! If we would just start listening more clearly to our pain and discomfort - our feelings of being out of alignment - the world within would become illuminated and a state of peace and balance would re-emerge. That sounds yummy to the soul, doesn’t it?