50 Shades of Balance | Friend | Anatomy of Peace
Hello there! Welcome to my weekly LEAPS.
You’re receiving this email because you subscribed to my weekly Wednesday feature or our mailing list. Every Wednesday, I share 5 things using our LEAPS approach:
Learn: something new or an idea
Energy: an energy (good or bad) word and it’s meaning
Action: something to do
Processing: a question to consider
Shout out: something or someone that I want to celebrate or acknowledge
LEARN
Something Worth Sharing
The 50 Shades of Balance
My grandmother was a professional chef and instilled in me a love of baking. While watching her, I gained a real lesson about balance. I remember people talking about balance as two things: balanced and not balanced. It almost assumed that balance is simple; it’s either black or white. This never seemed to make sense to me, especially given that I was a competitive ice skater and knew instinctively (and from painful experience) that balance is not that straightforward.
When my Grandma would bake she used an old fashioned set of scales. As she’d start tipping flour into them they were in a state of imbalance - not enough - until hitting the right measurement. However, very often she’d slip and quickly go back into a state of imbalance - this time it would be ‘too much’.
Life is like this. We are always trying to navigate our way to the ideal state of balance, but it is more common to be either side of this - too little or too much. Sometimes we are very imbalanced and at other times we can just be slightly out. Businesses follow this same challenge - as do teams, relationships, societies and even nature. The trick is to have awareness and then develop the strategies to regulate balance. Your balance is personal to you - as mine is to me.
The ice skater in me also knows that if we try to rapidly force balance we can easily overcompensate and swing past balance to a state of too much - and in my case, fall over! The ability to work through the shades of balance in a calm way that allows progress is like a muscle - it’s personal and takes practice - otherwise we will spend all our time just swinging back and forth!
ENERGY
An emotion or energy; a stand-out word / s
Friend
I had a message from someone recently that referred to me as ‘friend’. It is always a lovely feeling to be regarded as a friend. This inspired the word for this week.
The word ‘friend’ is from Old English FREOND meaning "one attached to another by feelings of personal regard and preference". It originates from the PIE (Proto-Indo-European) root of PRI meaning ‘to love’.
This helps to understand why it’s such a lovely word for someone to use for you!
ACTION
Something small that you can do that might make a big difference
Practice Balance
The ‘Learn’ this week was about balance - just to extend this further, it is a fact that physical balance becomes increasingly challenging as we age. There are some simple exercises you can do (at any age) to maintain good balance:
Stand on one foot for 30 seconds on each side (try closing your eyes at the same time to make it more challenging).
Walk heel-to-toe for 20 steps (and backwards to make it more challenging).
Sit to stand without using your hands (using one leg only to make it more challenging).
Heel raises 10 to 20 times, rising up on your toes as far as you can while standing.
PROCESSING
A question to think about and consider (you can discuss this with someone or write your thoughts down)
“What is the big question on your mind?”
A question about a question! To help with this one, try writing down the questions on your mind until you find THE BIG question on your mind. What is it telling (or asking you)? What do you need to do about this?
I’d love for you to send me your own stories / thoughts about this. Drop me a line with your answer / thoughts on this question
SHOUT OUT
Who / what I think deserves recognition - my gratitude or to be celebrated.
Change of Environment
Whether it is a different position for your laptop, a different room or different country, changing your environment can be all that’s needed to get unstuck or generate new thinking and ideas. Changing an environment can involve being around different people, lighting, etc - however it is done, I’m shouting out a change of environment and the benefits that this can offer.
BONUS GIFT FOR YOU
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LEAPS is a process used by our team and clients all the time - and even my own family on a daily basis.
I’ll be sharing a set of LEAPS each week with you and encourage you to do your own version:
L: what have you learned?
E: what’s your energy / feeling word
A: what’s one thing you need to do?
P: what are you thinking / processing?
S: who or what can you shout out?
