Image courtesy of Gustty

Balance is something that is often mentioned in personal development and well-being circles. It is said you should eat a balanced diet, live a balanced life and seek a good work/family balance. But what is balance? What does it mean to live a balanced life and why does balance seem like such an elusive concept?

“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: And this, too, shall pass away.” – Abraham Lincoln

Life really is one thing after another. The physical environment we each live in is in constant streaming flux. Physically when it’s cold we shiver to bring our body temperature up. When it’s hot we sweat to bring our body temperature down. As living organisms we live in a constantly changing environment. Our bodies are well adapted to this state of affairs and respond appropriately when conditions deviate from their optimal state. This ability of an organism to maintain equilibrium (balance) by adjusting appropriately to the external environment is known as homeostasis.

And there in lies the key to understanding balance. Balance is the taking of appropriate action when circumstances dictate so as to maintain equilibrium. It is said that the great achievement of the sages of old was the achievement of great balance as human beings. How did they achieve great balance? In the present moment, when things would come up, they would respond accordingly.

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If you have been following this series on the health benefits of meditation, then hopefully you have given meditation a go by now, and as you meditate and relax, you may well have asked yourself ‘What is actually happening here?’

What is happening is this – The Relaxation Response is kicking in, thanks to your Parasympathetic Nervous System, which is the opposite of your Sympathetic Nervous System.

When you meditate, or rest effectively, the Parasympathetic Nervous System takes over and gets to work reversing the ‘flight or fight’ stress response, counteracting its effects, relaxing the mind and taking your body on a healing journey back to a balanced state of homeostasis.

This is the Relaxation Response. It is proven scientific fact.

This is the single most tangible thing that beginning a regular practice of meditation can do for you and your health. Meditation can be of great help if you are a person who has trouble switching off the mind and unwinding. Even if you are a fairly chilled-out person, you will still benefit from the deeper levels of relaxation, and the healing that this will encourage.

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Meditation promotes good health by fighting off the adverse effects of stress – but what is stress anyway?

Stress is the response to a situation that motivates us to perform an action – whether that be fleeing from an attacker, worrying, or just mowing the lawn.

How Your Body Reacts to Stress.

If you become stressed (even mildly) your Sympathetic Nervous System works to cause you to act appropriately. Hormones like adrenaline and others kick in; we get excited or anxious; muscles tighten; blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing rate rises. We use up more energy. This is the “Fight or Flight Response”.

Whether it be a small event or a life-threatening one, our bodies respond to stress in a similar way. The difference is that the level of response adjusts to meet the perceived level of threat.

This system can get out of whack and people may find they are overreacting to some of the smaller stressors of life.

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Fact 1: Meditation assists healing. If you have any kind of health complaint at all then meditation can help you to get better.

Fact 2: Meditation can help you to stay healthy. If you are in good shape and want to stay this way, then regular meditation is a good idea.

Twenty years ago these would have been considered fringe ideas rather than facts, but not anymore…

Meditation Goes Mainstream

Meditation no longer belongs solely to the worlds of pseudo-science and spirituality, but has now been embraced by modern science as well.

Good western doctors know how meditation works to relax and heal. A recent survey of General Practitioners found that up to 80% of doctors had referred patients to practitioners of the three most popular Complementary Therapies – which included meditation, along with acupuncture and hypnosis.

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One piece of advice that I’ve come across in the writings of several life coaches is that we should act in our own best interests. My initial reaction to this is to feel uncomfortable – like most people, I worry that I’m being selfish if I put myself first.

But I’ve come to realize that acting in your own best interests, when done properly, isn’t a selfish act – it’s a way to ensure that you’re making the very best of your life, so that you can help those around you to make the very best of theirs.

So, what are your best interests? How do you base your actions, your goals, your time-management and your life on them – and how will this affect the people around you?

I would suggest that acting consistently in your own best interests involves four areas:

• Meeting your physical needs, such as getting enough sleep and exercise
• Meeting your emotional needs, such as asking for support when you need it
• Meeting your mental needs, such as having a stimulating job
• Meeting your spiritual needs, such as taking time to meditate or pray

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It seems like every sleep expert has reduced the fascinating topic of sleep to a boring set of rules:

• Keep your room dark.
• Take a warm bath.
• Keep the bedroom for sleep and sex only.
• Avoid caffeine x hours before bedtime (where x depends on who you ask).
• Don’t drink alcohol.

Et cetera, et cetera, yadda, yadda…

Sleep is much more interesting than that. Now don’t get me wrong, the above points are valid. Some of it is great advice.

But it isn’t the half of it.

Obtaining super-quality sleep has become a (somewhat nerdy) passion of mine, and I personally don’t think the standard set of rules like the ones listed above really do justice to the nuances of better sleep.

Sleep is no doubt a critical ingredient in a healthy lifestyle. If I sleep poorly, I feel like an irritable, unproductive, unmotivated, unhappy, sick, deprived zombie.

But if I have “10 out of 10″ sleep, I feel like superman. My consciousness becomes crystal-clear. I feel more self-aware. And I get more creative work done than I would as a sleep-impoverished drone.

In this article I will describe five “unusual” sleep tricks that can give you that “10 out of 10″ super-quality sleep.

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“I am an old man and I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened” -  Mark Twain

What Is worry? Worry is a very strong feeling of anxiety. It’s fear of the unknown – the thought that the worst will happen.

We may become overly concerned with future events. We may engage in repetitive negative self-talk with all the worst case scenarios. A lot of our thoughts will begin with …

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There’s plenty of advice on the web about what to eat and drink, and a lot of it can be more than a bit confusing. What exactly is a “superfood”? Should you be eating a meat-heavy caveman diet or a fruit-rich raw food diet for optimum health? Do you really need two liters of water every day?

Often, we mistrust the advice being peddled – and with good reason. But this shouldn’t lead us to stop caring about what we put into our mouths altogether. One of the best ways to cut through the hype, the fads and the ridiculous promises is to figure out what works for your body. That means being conscious as to how food, water, caffeine and alcohol make you feel – and adjusting what you consume accordingly.

Listening to your body about food

Try thinking through times when you’ve felt ill, lethargic or sluggish after eating. You might want to ask yourself questions like:

- How do I feel after a big meal?

Have you ever been stuck in a boring lecture or conference after a large lunch? Did you find yourself struggling to keep your eyelids open? Most people find that overeating at lunch-time has a poor effect on afternoon productivity: it’s hard to get on with work when you want to curl up and fall asleep.

Eating a big evening meal might help you to sleep – but eating too much near bedtime is likely to leave your stomach unpleasantly full and gurgling as you’re trying to drop off.

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It was the summer of 1998. I was 12 years old at the time and a frequent visitor to the local public swimming pool. Our family was doing well that year so each of my siblings and I had a Summer pass. Wow, a Summer pass! I felt on top of the world. I went to the pool religiously every day, right when they opened. I remember many of the teenage boys and men there had chiseled abs and washboard stomachs. I was just starting to like girls at the time and it seemed like all the boys with the muscular physiques were getting more attention from the ladies than I was. As soon as I realized this, that was the beginning of my quest to get ripped.

I started lifting some free weights that my dad had lying around the garage. That helped a little, but I was still self-conscious of my stomach. Keep in mind I wasn’t overweight. I was a lean kid. I wanted a chiseled stomach though, so every day at the pool I would constantly flex my stomach. When I flexed, it looked like I had more definition than I actually did, but who could tell right? So I flexed constantly. I flexed when I walked, I flexed in the pool, I flexed when I was laying down. I started doing it so much, I even flexed when my shirt was on. It just became a habit.

What I didn’t realize at the time was all this flexing had led to greater definition. Now even when I didn’t flex, you could see an outline of my abs. This may not seem like much, but for me it this was exciting.

As my obsessive flexing continued, more and more of the six pack under all those layers of skin started to come through.

I’m not suggesting you go around flexing your stomach all day long, but just think about all the time you’re not doing anything where you could take advantage of this:

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PickTheBrain has lead me to a new job with a company named PeopleJam (I’ll be sharing the story soon). As part of my duties as head of online marketing, I’ll be writing articles on PeopleJam and sharing them here when they’re relevant.

The first such article is all about maintaining a youthful body as you get older by eating right and getting the right kinds of exercise. Head over and check it out.

If you like the post, do me a favor and give the article a digg.