No. 28 - On Creating Balance

I think you'll agree that balanced flavour and texture across the palate is a cornerstone of what makes Island Elixir teas unique. Creating balance is something incredibly important to me, and that extends beyond the tea studio. I certainly don't claim to have the recipe for life sorted out (if you do, please share—seriously, we all need to know your secrets!). After a beautiful close to August this weekend, I'm reminded that, although it’s so easy to fall out of balance, it’s just as important—and joyful—to bring it back together. I know I’ll lose it again (know thyself), but with a little luck, friends, family, and many cups of tea will help set me right once more.

Serenity

If you live on, or ever come to visit, Vancouver Island, it’s worth taking the trip out to Mystic Beach. Brave the moderate two-kilometre hike through a beautiful coastal rainforest to the partially sandy—depending on Mother Nature's whims—and mostly rocky beach. Walk to the west end of the beach, past picnickers and campers, and under the cliff overhang. There, you’ll find pile upon pile of well-balanced rocks. Small piles and seemingly impossible towers stand serenely against the incredible backdrop of the Pacific Ocean.

As you sip your tea (you did bring tea, right?!), take a moment to reflect on how you find your balance. In the face of life's many rocks, how do you choose your foundation? Which rocks do you collect? In what order do you stack them? If your pile collapses—as new ones inevitably do—what needs to change to make it more balanced, resilient, and able to withstand the pounding of the waves? With all the rocks of our lives—family, friends, hobbies, work, spiritual paths, rest, learning, creating—finding balance can feel like trying to stack the slipperiest rocks on Earth. Maybe the rocks are the wrong shape, and new ones need to be found. Or perhaps they need only be flipped and looked at from another angle, so your life pile can stand tall and steady. It might only last for a day, or maybe it’ll hold for a fortnight or twelve. Whatever the case, keep building, and remember to enjoy the serenity, even if only for the time it takes to finish your tea.

Perseverance

“But,” you say, “I’m so tired of the rocks falling down Every. Single. Day. I set them up, revel in the calm of my perfect pile, and feel like life is grand on this fearless journey. But the next day, they’ve all fallen down.” I hear you. Sometimes you can’t even find the same bloody rocks after the waves come through! Pragmatically speaking, what is there to do but persevere in re-piling, day after day, with each try believing to our core that this time, the pile will persist? After all, just like on our journey to becoming fearless, it’s in the re-piling that we have the opportunity to do a little re-arranging, to find the pile that will survive the night, so that the next morning, there’s nothing more to do than drink our tea and take in the view.

 

Well-being

Oh yes, it can be tempting to 'forget' some of those rocks and make the pile shorter. But does that sacrifice really make things easier? Research indicates that spending more than 48 hours per week working—a fairly sizeable rock for most of us—actually leads to a decline in our productivity. So, good news! That leaves you, assuming a maximum duration work week and accounting for time to sleep and have a least some small morning and evening tea routines, plenty of time (just over 50 hours per week) to bring in all those other unique rocks that make the pile of your life so elegantly beautiful.

Perhaps you’ll also get creative and find that you have room for even a couple more pebbles to balance around the edges of the larger rocks—beautiful tea at work, tea with friends, tea while hiking ... you see where I’m going here ;) With more diversity in your life, you’re less likely to burn out and more likely to look back on your day, week, month, year, or lifespan with admiration for all you’ve accomplished, and all the wonderful tea moments too.

One more thing...

"Balance in the body is the foundation for balance in life. In whatever position one is in, or in whatever condition in life one is placed, one must find balance. Balance is the state of the present - the here and now. If you balance in the present, you are living in Eternity."
- B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Life

Until next time,
Steep Calm.
Bree