If a person goes too far in any one direction or does too much of any one thing, it can be at the cost of well being. A fundamental concept in Feng Shui and Chinese Medicine is to ‘bring 5 elements to balance.’ This can mean many different things to many different people, but basically it means you can’t (or shouldn’t) always focus on the ‘easy’ and the ‘strong.’ To progress development and to find inner peace sometime it actually pays more to focus on the ‘difficult’ or the ‘weak.’
Everyone by nature has one or two main ‘elements’ that they tend to focus on, where the strength or power comes from in their existence, where the aptitude or determination comes from. Everyone has a weakness - a part of them that by nature is lacking in energy or motivation or understanding. Sometimes we live in a culture that encourages us to focus on what comes easy and where our strengths are, but is that really what builds a better individual?
So as a physical instructor I’m going to limit my point to a physical one as I don’t want to get too preachy on mental philosophy or psychology: too much of any one sport, activity, or practice without a complimentary and oppositional device will always lead to more pain and suffering instead of well being. If you do Yoga every day but that’s it, something’s going to hurt. If you spin an object around for 8 hours a day but that’s your only discipline, something’s going to hurt. If you only buy into training the muscles that popular culture has tricked you into believing are important, then something’s going to hurt. The WORST part of these traps, is these people who fall into them all have a hard time accepting that it is largely their own pattern of behavior and activity that is making things worse and not allowing things to get better. It is amazing how people study physics and science in school but those very same people won’t acknowledge their physical body is just like a building or a car. When you take care of the structure properly and you don’t keep pummeling certain areas repeatedly, the life lasts a lot longer and healthier without maintenance.
So think about it...what is your strength? What is your weakness? What do you have the easiest time doing? What do you have the hardest time doing or getting yourself to even start. Take some time out of what you know you do too much, and give it to something you normally neglect. Your body will thank you, it’s simply all about balancing the weight equally and lightening the load of stress on the system.
