13th century poet Jalai al-Din Rumi wrote "Life is a balance of holding on and letting go". This strikes me as true in all aspects of life including movement.
Movement is a balancing act. The body is a magnificent system of balances and counterbalances. Ninety percent of the energy of the brain is dedicated to uprightness and movement (Dr Roger Sperry, 1980). When it is considered as a whole, the fact of the body is a magical experience.
Balance occurs when everything is as it should be. In the physical structure, balance is a 'balancing act' between bones, fascia, muscles, skin, nerves, viscera, organs, breath, heartbeat, blood and lymph flow. Balance in the physical structure comes when the muscles naturally work in unison. When the bones are allowed to move, spiral, slide, glide. Joints fold, unfold, rotate, glide. Balance is an act of freedom, one in which the spine is free to expand, to move in a variety of directions, to tap into the limbs and gravity alike. Balance happens in the field of gravity in which we live. Balance is not something I can make happen. It is naturally occurring, yet in general it is interrupted.
In many exercise modalities, we have accepted the concept that it is the person, using will and musculature, that must find the balance. I recall many years ago (I don't think things are taught this way any longer, but it stuck with me) I was taught that to find balance I needed to focus my eyes on one spot, then organise my body to balance, then pick up my leg to get into 'tree pose'. And so my journey began with me thinking that balance was something of my doing.
This simply is not true. Balance is something that occurs naturally. We see it in nature often. When a bird injures a leg, they draw the injured leg toward the body and balance on the other leg. When a dog does a trick, standing on his back legs, he is simply balancing. The balance of gravity (and possibly other energy) is something that runs through nature. We see it in rock balancing. The true art of rock balancing as I have witnessed it in Hawaii looks to be impossible. But when we try it ourselves, we need patience and a softness in our own system. When we find this, we actually feel it when one rock finds its equilibrium atop another rock.
It is understood that the human body has a centre of gravity. This is likely the primary centre of balanced energy which in standing is just in front of the sacrum. In different traditions this is known as the Hara and the dantian. Living in gravity, everything presumably has a centre around and through which gravity travels and helps to create balance.
It seems to me that as a human our body has a variety of points around which it balances. Balance, as a client of mine pointed out, feels like neutral. Effortless. The feet balance on the floor. The ankles balance around the feet. The shins balance around the ankles. The knees balance around the shins. The thigh bone balances around the feet and shin. And so it continues up the body. Each element having specific unnoticeable balancing points.
These balance points are lost or mitigated when we wilfully take over their role and impose muscular tension around these balance points. It is easy for us to believe that we can work out how to balance. Or maybe how to work out how to find the balance points. In actuality, balance is a feeling. It is not made up of parts, but is included and affected by the whole.
The body as a whole is made up of skin, fascia, muscles, bones, a variety of systems, etc, but it is also an energetic system. Added to this, it is intelligent. It contains intelligence as old as the hills and as innate as DNA. The destruction of this intelligence sends the body out of balance and with it, the mind.
The loss of balance leads to more and more theories about how to balance. How we can use our will to create balance. My own experience has led me to believe that balance is an inner magician. The use of my will to balance creates disorder and with that, imbalance. Balance can neither be seen nor heard. It cannot be touched, although it is found through feeling which includes touch. It also includes the sense of sight and the sense of sound. When the body is balancing, there is a distinct sensation of all being well.
Balance is not something I can personally teach. But I do offer the feeling of balance to my clients through touch and movement. And when the body feels it and the mind resides in it, we begin to get a sense of the possibilities. There is a silence around balance. A wonderment and a return to a state of nature. When I understand more how to impart this to others, I may offer to teach it beyond my room.
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