I’ll admit it. I had to look it up. As our exploration of balance continues, I’ve been digging deeper. Balance is a skill of staying steady in both body and mind. A pertubation is what helps us practice balance. It is a change in the normal state or regular movement of something.
It’s not a pretty word, perturbation, and it does not roll off the tongue. Similar to its sound in a sentence, in life perturbation is a disruptor and often not welcomed with open arms.
Physical balance and staying steady seem like the ideal condition. So who wants a disruptive change to come along?
Practicing Tree pose and holding for 6-8 breaths is a steady balance to build strength in the legs and ankles and helps with the “broomstick effect” to make balance easier. This kind of balance practice helps builds muscles and a solid core.
But staying in one place is not the way of daily life. We are moving animals, using our bodies in a vast multitude of ways every day to transport ourselves, do our work, and play. Moving is change, perturbation. Change means risks, and opportunities.
This is where I love the practice of yoga. Within the practice is the safe space to discover where you are. To see clearly that right now you may be wobbly and have weak ankles. It’s an opportunity to be with what is, to accept it, without judgment, and know you have a choice to make it different.
Yoga is a safe practice to stretch and grow strong to live a dynamic, and joy-filled life.
It’s a place to see opportunity and welcome pertubations so you can say yes to life.
Walking on a fallen log across a stream can be challenging and scary. Having the courage and skill, strength and balance at that moment in life to give it a try is the reward for your practice of balance.
And the even sweeter reward is dry shoes on the other side.
Be well…it’s a state of mind.