Balance~Part 1: It's Physical!

  When I saw the movie Eddie the Eagle, I was inspired by this story about a very tenacious Olympic athlete. I was moved by the underlying theme of perseverance and determination. When Eddy was told “NO,” it actually increased his motivation to do the complete opposite, and he became even more driven toward his goals. When someone tried to discourage or dismiss him, he developed an unrelenting desire to prove them wrong regardless of the risk.

I can relate to this aspect of Eddy. As a teenager, I was called “rebellious,” “irreverent,” “stubborn,” “impossible,” and “extreme.” I’ve always been a person of extremes, all or nothing. This has been one of the greatest challenges throughout my life, and I’ve discovered through both my personal relationships and my professional work with others, I’m not the only one. Many of us face the struggle of finding balance. All too often we attempt to achieve this balance by trying to compensate for what we feel may be lacking, or by over-correcting our missteps, both of which ultimately perpetuate the imbalance.

In some ways, all living things are innately designed to compensate and over-correct as a way of promoting survival, self-preservation and homeostasis. Simply put, we learn to adapt to our environment or circumstances, whether positively or negatively, consciously or unconsciously. The body develops ways to maintain balance. However, at times these innate physiological functions may also inhibit or disrupt our progress in other ways. Our mindset, attitude, and approach to life can help us make choices to promote greater balance in our lives and our relationships.

This article is broken up into two sections:

• Part 1: Physical—the positive and negative ways our system is designed to achieve wellness, healing and homeostasis (balance)
• Part 2: Psychological—the ways in which we may promote and/or inhibit our emotional equilibrium (balance)

Everybody’s Body

Kinesiology/Bones/Muscles: To understand some of the physiological ways in which our body adapts, compensates, and modifies itself in an effort to maintain balance, consider what happens when we injure a muscle or break a bone. The body needs to find a way to make adjustments, which often entails increasingly engaging another part of the body or muscle group. For example, while muscles surrounding a broken leg tend to become weak as the bone heals in a cast, other muscle groups in the body (e.g. the other leg, abdominals, arms, etc.) are likely to grow bigger and become stronger. However, in some situations, this can result in compensatory injuries, whereas we may actually cause secondary harm by overusing or over-depending on another muscle/bone.

Nervous System: Similarly, when the body interprets something as a threat, the nervous system is designed to fire off a surge of activating (sympathetic) chemicals or energy preserving (parasympathetic) chemicals. As humans, our system is wired for survival in much the same way that prey is able to survive its predators in the wild. However, the release of these chemicals can happen during times of normal stress as well, regardless of the reality or severity of the threat (e.g. public speaking, being stuck in traffic, a first date, etc.).

There is significant attention now on how the extended exposure to these stress hormones can negatively impact our health. We are consequently being encouraged to develop effective coping strategies for calming our selves down and managing our stress through breathing exercises, mindfulness practices, fitness/yoga regimens, and in some cases medication. It’s interesting to note however, that when out of balance, the aspect of our system which is designed to keep us safe and promote our survival, becomes the very thing that presents as a detriment to our wellbeing.

Nutrition and Metabolism: Consider also how our metabolism functions to both help and inhibit us. Most of us have experience altering our diets in some form or other. Whether it means restricting calories, fats, sugars, gluten, alcohol, or meat, we seem to be on an endless process of discovering the perfect dietary utopia. Our metabolism, an organic process designed to maintain life, creates a chemical reaction to supplement, aid digestion, and ultimately, promote homeostasis in the body.

When we create a disruption in the system’s metabolism, our body naturally responds by making adjustments. For example, when approaching weight loss by severely restricting ourselves, we likely deny ourselves important energy sources and essential fats and nutrients which can interfere with the function of our metabolic system. Our body, in a state of physiological deprivation, shifts into “starvation mode.” In order to prepare for a potential threat on our survival, the body automatically works to hold on to energy stores and conserve nutritional resources to promote self-preservation, likely resulting in a slowed metabolism. This, in turn, has the exact opposite effect of what we were attempting to accomplish toward weight loss.

Questions to Consider:

• Someone tells you “no.” How do you respond? What do you notice in your body? How does it feel emotionally?
• What does the concept of balance mean to you?
• Can you think of a time when you attempted to overcorrect a mistake? Can you think of a time you may have compensated for something that was lacking or missing? What was the result?
• Have you ever broken a bone or suffered another bodily injury? What kind of adjustments did you/your body have to make?

Next week: Balance~Part 2: Caught up in Emotion