This week began on the Spring Equinox, a time when our natural world is in balance.

The spring balances between the nighttime and the daytime, the cold and the warmth, sleep and growth. The spring days promise more sunshine, flowers, and the greening of the earth as it wakes up. This time of year, everywhere I look I see things coming back to life.

Everything exists with its equal and its opposite, the whole has its pieces and nothing is missing, everything is as it should be. In the spring we are naturally in balance so we feel more alive. We feel more alive because we are experiencing life more fully.

No wonder we human’s have been obsessed with contrast and balance probably forever, who doesn’t want to feel more alive?

Newton’s 3^rd law of physics states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The theory of everything is based on the thought that everything is balanced. The ancient Chinese called this the Yin and Yang or the Tao. Even Jesus preached the Middle Way.

I could go on here with examples from thinkers across the ages from Aristotle to Marcus Aurelius who discussed life’s nature of wanting balance and the importance of all the pieces making up one whole.

Balance makes us feel more alive because we are experiencing life all at once, not one thing over another.

The whole is greater than the parts.

Let’s go back and look at Yin and Yang, it is such a good example. According to Wikipedia, Yin and Yang can be thought of as complimentary (rather than opposing) forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts.

This ancient philosophical concept that describes how obviously opposite or contrary forces may actually be complimentary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.

You can’t have one without the other. You can’t have the whole without the parts and you can’t have one part without the others. You have to have it all to have any.

Okay - okay, so how does this actually relate to our human experience?

How do we feel more alive?

If we spend all of our time thinking about the past (one end of a spectrum) or we spend all of our time planning for our future (the other end of the spectrum) we never experience the present moment.

The present moment is balanced between the two. Sometimes we swing one way or the other but we want to try to live within the balance in the present moment because the present moment is when life happens. It truly is when we are alive, literally.

Somewhere in the middle, a healthy mix of all the pieces. That’s where I want to be, where I want to live.

Balance is a constant practice.

Think of all the areas of your life and decide if you could live a little more in the center, a bit more fully, more holistically. This will allow you to experience all that life has to offer.

We humans like to label and judge, it’s our nature.

Are you constantly judging things as good and bad or labeling things as positive and negative? Can you look for, see, and appreciate the big picture in its entirety or how the parts are complimentary instead?

We can learn to appreciate the whole. You wouldn’t be able to appreciate the beautiful light of a sunset if it was always lighting up the sky. Like the quote says, “you can't have stars without the darkness…”

We need all of it to live and experience a full rich life. All of humanity, all the emotions, all the seasons, all the colors, moods, and tastes create the rich tapestry we call life.

Embrace all of it.

Happy Spring