Balancing lives for health

Jefferson Breland

(4/2022) This year the Vernal equinox occurred on Sunday, March 20 at 11:33 a.m..

In that moment, someone, somewhere decided there was an equal amount of day and night. I couldn’t tell from where I was sitting because it seemed pretty much like there was more daylight than night (light, I guess).

How this relates to our lives is that it is a reminder from Nature that balance can be achieved at least twice a year; once in the Spring and again in the Fall whether we are paying attention or not. No, that’s not quite true. Balance or I could say, balancing is happening all the time.

So what is "balance?" First off, it can be a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb. The most common definition or usage refers to a steady physical position or condition so as not to fall down. Other definitions refer to a state of equilibrium, equality of distribution- such as equal parts or weights, our checkbook/bank account, harmonious or satisfying arrangement or proportion of parts or elements, as in the visual arts or design, a device for measuring weights, a bank balance, to access or consider, opposing forces that create balance, and the list goes on and on.

In health care, and by this, I mean our own caring for our own health, not the big system of hospitals, et cetera, I use the world balance in a couple of ways.

There is the internal balancing that happens in every cell in our bodies. This is often referred to as homeostasis. The Oxford Dictionary defines this as "the tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes." Scientific American magazine using somewhat more understandable language calls it, "any process that living things use to actively maintain fairly stable conditions necessary for survival."

This homeostasis happens automatically when we stay out of our own way, which then leads me to my second usage.

By "staying out of our own way," I mean doing or not doing things which don’t help us stay balanced. Now it sounds like I am full of beans. I am generally referring to any human activity: eating, sleeping, wearing enough clothes to stay warm (or to stay cool), socializing, having fun, exercise, being in nature, knowing how to be peaceful, reading, loving ourself and others, working, bathing, so on and so forth. These activities effect our inner world, physically as well as emotionally, and sometimes spiritually.

Another way of looking at balance in terms of our health is the word, moderation.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Greek Philosophy (GP), moderation is the key to life: not too much or little of this, not too much or little of that.

Let’s use work as an example. A full-time job is more than one-third of our 5-day work week. Some jobs like teaching can take up over half of the total hours of a 5-day work week. This is a situation in which it seems we cannot create moderation. The key to moderation is to find where we can create moderation. Our emotions can be that place. We can choose how we relate to our work to provide an internal balance.

Some of us are lucky, we love what we do to earn a living. Some of us are fortunate to have co-workers we adore. Some of us are not so lucky. We might have a job about which we like nothing.

Generally speaking, having work, a paying job, is better than not having a paying job. Money is a tool we use to do the things we want in life, the whole clothing, food, shelter thing (some might add travel to that list). We work in order that we may live. I am not sure that living to work is a good thing.

Working ourselves to death is not a great thing. And yet, there is often an expectation to put our work ahead of the other parts of our life, like family, our hobbies, inner peace and the like. Sometimes it is our employers. Sometimes it is our own ambition. Explicit or not, there may be an expectation we should be willing to work more hours than we are being paid for (particularly in salaried positions). Curiously, the French did something relatively right in this category. ( I usually only give them credit for inventing mayonnaise) In 2016, the French government passed a law that made it illegal for companies with more than 50 employees to email employees after typical working hours (generally after 6:00 pm and weekends). It is referred to as the "right to disconnect" rule.

I think it should also be for companies with less than 50 employees. Anyone who works in a small business knows how hard one already works and could really use the downtime. Studies show that workplace stress is incredibly high (more so in the last two years) and negatively impacts the health of workers.

So how do we find that proverbial work/life balance? To start with, work is a part of life. It is not like we are living two lives, work and not work. It is the same life. For most of us work is an essential part of our life. Understanding this and being grateful that our work allows us to take care of those we love is one way of balancing the stresses of prolonged work hours, and even doing work we don’t like. It is at least a start.

One of the primary strategies I use in my treatment room is to support what is going well with my patients. I support their health. I don’t treat the condition or disease. I support their body’s ability to heal itself. To do so, I often ask, "What is going well?" Many are surprised by this question. Often, they don’t have a ready answer. In our culture (perhaps in our species), we are often taught to focus on our problems, our insufficiencies, the troubles of our life.

I ask "what is going well" not to negate any of their suffering. Their health and life concerns are very real and often frightening. I ask this question to shine light on the good in life we often take for granted. I shine light on the good that exists now.

There are things we must do in this human reality to live. How we choose to think about them is our choice. A few paragraphs ago I mentioned being grateful for our work. Gratitude is a good choice. Gratitude is an acknowledgement of who and what helps us. When genuinely felt and expressed, it has a warming, perhaps even a softening quality to our being. Both the receiver and the giver of gratitude benefit. Many people don’t receive enough acknowledgement. If you are one of those people, I encourage you to express gratitude to everyone in you life, even for the small or expected things in our life. Thank your children, siblings, spouses, co-workers, cashiers, waiters, bartenders, etc. for anything and everything no matter how small. Express this gratitude honestly from your heart and eventually you will begin to receive the gift of gratitude from others as well.

"When the pickpocket saw the saint on the road, all the pickpocket saw was the saint’s pockets." I mention this adage to emphasize that we are all holy beings. We are all children of God. I want us to see the potential within each of us and others. We have each been bestowed with these amazing bodies that are capable of healing ourselves when we stay out of our own way and shine our light on the world.

Jefferson Breland is a board-certified acupuncturists licensed in Pennsylvania and Maryland with offices in Gettysburg and Towson, respectively. He can be reached at 410-336-5876.