November has always been “Find Yer Balance” month at Satori.

As enticing as it is to chat about work-life balance and all that awesome stuff, this conversation is - at least so far - literally about balancing on our feet.

In Tuesday's class I said,

I am looking forward to my up-coming medical thing cause I get to have the whole weekend off.

Sooooo... who am I to talk about work-life balance {I am trying tho - currently reading this awesome book on avoiding the burnout and elevating performance - just what the doctor ordered!}?

Let's start with the definition: what exactly is "balance"?

I am on this medical wave right now, so I'm gonna parallel this to: what exactly is health?

Just like our definition of health has gone down to "absence of disease, and nothing abnormal on the tests;" similarly, "balance" came to mean, “ not falling.”

Really?

As you and I both know, nothing showing on the tests does not mean feeling awesome.

And, as you have now guessed, not falling does not mean you've got great balance.

Try this:

Balance on one foot.

Any wavering?

Now close your eyes.

Any change in stillness?

What exactly does that tell about your body mechanics, and how can that be a contributing factor to chronic pain, insomnia, dizziness and eye fatigue?

The good news:

Human stabilization system is an intricate relationship between the information coming from the muscles, joints and tendons and the way our brain processes this information When it works properly, this complex system can balance our bodies relative to our environment… even if our environment changes moment to moment.

The bad news:

Stiff, unyielding muscles send low quality + incorrect information to the decision making center – the brain.

The brain, not knowing that information is based on stiffness, makes over-correction - a wobble or a lurching movement – to stabilize.

Did you feel yourself move more when you closed your eyes?

Here’s why: the eyes are not a part of sensory input required for wholly-body balance – muscles, joints, tendons and bones are!

Your muscles, tendons and joints should know where they are without looking. If, however, they send fuzzy pictures to your brain (due to tightness), you begin to rely on your eyes for balance.

Eyes + vestibular apparatus are part of the system that balances the head, all of the time (this is part of our survival mechanism). Visual cues from your eyes will establish your overall balance no matter how jacked up and out of alignment the rest of your body is.

Compensations galore!

Now you can imagine that without due investigation, we keep doing same ol’ balance exercises, while continuing to compensate here, there, and everywhere.

Our body contains a complex information / coordination system, that lets us know, without even looking, where each muscle, bone, and tendon is in space. Our brain, better than the best engineer, pilot, or computer software system, can balance the body both relative to itself, and also to the environment.

This is the level of balance {and health!} we are training for!