Do you have balance?
Sue here….
As I sit down to write this today, I’ve been contemplating this idea of balance — especially as I continue talking about whether our daily actions create nourishment or depletion in our body and mind.
Take a moment right now and consider:
What do you do first thing in the morning?
Who do you spend your time with?
What types of foods do you eat — and when?
How hard or gentle is your exercise or yoga routine?
What habits or patterns make up your evenings? Do you even have a nighttime routine?
Are the things you do every day nourishing your system… or depleting it?
There’s usually a reason why we feel exhausted every afternoon and reach for a pick-me-up.
A reason why we don’t sleep well and wake feeling sluggish.
This is where Ayurveda can be incredibly helpful. It teaches us to understand how our regular choices affect us — physically, mentally, emotionally — day after day.
Have you heard the saying: “When you know better, you do better?”
Well, Ayurveda has another perspective: Prajnaparadha — “crimes against our own wisdom.”
Meaning… sometimes even when we know better, we still don’t choose better.
We’ve all done it.
We know going to bed earlier would help, but we stay up binge-watching Netflix.
We say yes to the friend who continually needs more from us, when what we truly need is rest.
We eat the big bowl of ice cream late at night, knowing we’ll feel uncomfortable afterward.
Yep… we’re human.
And this is why balance matters so much.
It’s okay to make choices that aren’t always the “best” choices sometimes — and definitely not beat ourselves up for them. But when those choices become our everyday patterns, imbalance begins to build in the body and mind.
This is often where dis-ease starts to appear:
reflux, anxiety, achy joints, weight gain, belly bloat, mental fatigue, poor sleep, and more.
So perhaps the real question is:
Is what I do on a regular basis nourishing my system… or depleting it?
I ask this often in my yoga classes.
As students practice, I invite them to notice:
Is there ease within the effort? Or are they constantly struggling?
Do they always choose the hardest version? And is that actually nourishing… or depleting?
When we begin paying attention to our choices and our body’s responses, we naturally begin making better ones.
Maybe that looks like:
Starting the Netflix show earlier and watching the rest tomorrow
Letting a friend know you need a quiet evening at home
Enjoying the ice cream earlier in the evening instead of right before bed
Simple shifts.
Not perfection. Just awareness.
As humans, we tend to live in patterns — waking at the same time, eating the same foods, repeating the same habits day after day without much thought.
So this week, take a gentle look at your daily choices and ask yourself:
Where can I nourish myself more?
Where can I create a little more balance?
Your body and mind are always responding. And when we offer ourselves more nourishment, life begins to feel lighter, steadier, and more easeful.
With love,
Sue & Chris