06/05/2023
A wise man once said: Kites Rise Against and Not With the Wind.
Balancing life and work can be challenging to a person's physiological, psychological, and emotional health.
An idealistic personal pursuit of work-life harmony can leave us drained, cynical, nihilistic, and devitalized when we cannot achieve it.
When integrated intelligently, we aquaint ourselves with relative joy, happiness, fulfillment, and revitalization.
It is natural to feel both of these as life is not in perfect balance and can be quite the opposite of what we wish, causing us to spiral downward at times.
It is imperative to realize this to have a balanced view of life and work and know what to expect.
Like the above quote, in many ways, life is like flying a kite which places many demands on our lives with its ups and downs.
We need to study carefully how the kite responds to changing winds and control it and not let it control us.
Sometimes we must let go and try again and maybe approach it differently.
We need to learn to work with opposing forces that seem to be working against us.
We respect its power and rise on the wind.
We must learn to be one with the kite.
Similarly, we need to understand ourselves first and conquer ourselves.
Take stock of how we respond to life stressors, recognize the need for life uplifters to keep going, and learn to be resilient against whatever winds come our way, knowing how to better deal with life's ups and downs.
Four forces exist in flight, weight, drag, thrust, and lift.
Each of these elements needs to be balanced to keep the kite steady.
Getting the kite to fly smoothly requires constant adjustments and learning to adapt to conditions, harnessing the power of the wind.
Pull too hard, and the wind will pull even harder.
Pull too little, and the kite will fall to the ground. So there is no such thing as being balanced all the time. It is something we must constantly work on to find that sweet spot.
Yin and yang are universally recognized symbols of harmony and balance. In truth, it does not mean balance all the time. In fact, Yin and Yang are complete opposites, opposing forces yet mutually beneficial like a kite against the wind. What comes up must come down.
We can think of Yin and Yang as fire and water.
Sometimes we need to be more like fire and push forward. Other times we need to be more like water and go with the flow and find the path of least resistance. We should not expect things to happen haphazardly the way we want them to or automatically fall into place.
Likewise, we should not force things to happen.
We need balance and flexibility in our approach to life to counteract fatalistic attitude towards our mental health.
It is inevitable that there will always be ups and downs, but we can learn to turn things around and have more positive and light moments, and not be overwhelmed by negative, dark days. When counterbalanced, these two opposing forces of nature can be mutually beneficial. It can bring out the best in ourselves and others, creating a wholesome and peaceful environment for personal growth and inner fulfillment.
There's no happiness without some sadness.
No calm without some frustration or fear without courage. No love without some pain, no journey worth traveling without some hardship. We must learn to balance the good, bad, and ugly in our life. Try and see a silver lining in every cloud and view life's difficulties from a different angle. We must tease out any tangled strings and line them up with our goals and the things that bring us joy and satisfaction and cause us to soar.
Once we give up the illusion of perfect balance, we can test the winds. Whenever the conditions are complimentary or an opportunity presents itself, we must attempt to lift ourselves as high as a kite.
When the winds of life are not so agreeable, we must learn to yield and be patient.
We can take lessons from life experiences and mistakes, seek help from others and take a leaf out of their book, adapting it to our situation.
Yin and yang can be dynamic and still, positive and negative, passive and active. If we learn to adopt Yin Yang concepts through life, we can learn resilience and grow strong when facing adversity. We can get better at adapting to both favorable and unfavorable conditions. Face the day with realistic optimism, knowing that circumstances will not always be in our favor. We can respond better once we know ourselves and better understand others and our environment. Learn to turn a bad situation around, focusing most of our efforts on the people and personal goals that matter in our life that uplift us and give us a sense of fulfillment and belonging.
