02 Jan Balance is everything
As we get ready to begin another new year, let us take a moment to ponder on how balanced our life has been in 2012. Have we been able to commit sufficient energy to both work and personal life? Do we have special memories of quality time spent with friends and family? What about our health? Have we harmed our bodies through gluttony, drinking too much or perhaps juicing irresponsibly and getting too many colonic irrigations? Or have we managed to lead sattvic lives?
Yogic science speaks of three important gunas or attributes. Sattva brings balance, goodness and hence, inner peace. Tamas is lethargy or inactivity when life seems dark or stuck in a rut. Rajas is the guna of passion, of action and dynamic motion. Yoga is popular because of its underlying principles of harmony and balance in life, and yet I see so many yogic practitioners taking the healthy lifestyle to an extreme.
Too much of anything can be bad; the key is in knowing where to draw the line. You often read about the latest scientific studies proving that a new substance has been found useful or harmful for the human body. But there is much truth in what Paracelsus, a 16th century pharmacologist, said: “All things are poison and nothing is without poison. It is the dose that makes a thing poisonous.”
Yogic science advises us to follow a healthy balanced diet and include a variety of food groups in our meals to get the benefit of all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals that they contain. It is not only a matter of difference in taste or liking, but also which substances agree with your body. Same thing can be said about excessive exercise. Like extreme diets, the obsessive behavior of over-exercising is generally seen in people who feel the strong urge to control their lives because of the fear of aging or dying.
In 2012, some of us may have been vacillating between a healthy and unhealthy life style, between a tamasic and rajasic life style. This can lead to imbalance over a prolonged period. Now that we understand the importance of creating and maintaining a healthy and balanced sattvic lifestyle, we must strive to incorporate this guna in our eating habits, exercising routine and all other aspects of our life.
Over time, sattva gradually starts ruling our lifestyle without the need for us to put in extra effort; it then becomes our inherent nature or habit. The sattvic guna ultimately transcends our mind and body into our soul; all three automatically begin to work in harmony to stabilize our inner balance. We will be at complete peace with the universe and ourselves. This is when people around us will see a new resultant glow on our face. What’s more, this positive sattvic energy and balance is passed on to each of them.
Wishing you all the best in 2013! May sattva rule your life all through the New Year.
Linda Madani