When You’re Feeling Wobbly
balancing body-heart-mind-soul
Note: This post was initially published June 2024 on Creative Catalyst. Since the message is still relevant and it is a lived application of the Wheel of Wisdom, I’m sharing it here.
Just about every aspect of life right now seems to be in flux—both collectively and personally. Is this true for you too?
For me, navigating yet another location change and considering big questions about what comes next is yielding an unsettling sense of uncertainty that challenges my capacity to feel grounded and keep my bearings.
About a week ago, before getting out of bed in the morning, I noticed I was caught in a mental loop of “problem solving” and felt increasingly fearful and agitated. I quickly responded to this recognition by changing my thoughts—pushing out ‘troublesome’ old ones with ‘better’ new ones. This is an inadequate strategy.
Why? Because even when I succeed in thinking pleasurable thoughts, I’m still trapped in my mind. Trying to address abundant mental activity with more mental activity keeps me unbalanced. Imbalance does not yield true joy. It keeps me in a narrow rut until I’m able to rebalance my focus and feel wholeness again.
On that morning, I imagined myself standing on a wobble board that looks something like this:
I had tipped the weight of my attention so far to one side of the wobble board that I was stuck. In this case, I was stuck in my mind. What I needed was to redistribute the weight of my awareness to include my body, heart, and soul—to regain my balance.
In this metaphor, the Wobble Board of Attention rests on the underlying fulcrum or balance point of the present moment—where mind, body, heart, and soul align. Fixating on one quadrant of reality to the exclusion of others disconnects awareness from the center point, where a fuller and more satisfying reality can be experienced.
Obviously, no quadrant of the wobble board is bad or needs to be avoided. It’s just that when we lean the weight of our attention into a single place for too long, it’s easy to get stuck there. This is not a problem to lament, it’s a phenomenon to attend. The recognition of what’s going on is the first step toward balance.
I’m finding this wobble board metaphor quite useful. Similar to wobble boards I’ve used at a gym, awareness is not meant to be static—it’s designed to move. A material wobble board is a playful tool for developing physical fluidity, resilient, and balance. Noticing my Wobble Board of Attention is a playful way to cultivate greater fluidity, resilience, and balance in my focus. It’s helping me keep a holistic perspective, and notice when I’m stuck. Then I can make a shift and feel my wholeness again.
On that Sunday morning, my shift began when I checked in with my heart. It revealed a familiar sadness I’ve come to recognize as a longing to connect with myself more deeply. So I put a hand to my chest and spoke to my heart: I am with you.
That’s when I noticed my breathing was tight and shallow. Encouraged by this awareness, the space between inhale and exhale began to naturally lengthen. Breath then expanded into my lower chest, back, and belly. When made conscious, the perfunctory act of breathing became a physical pleasure.
You could say that directing attention to my emotional and physical reality brought my mind into the present moment—where balance exists. Re-centered in a fuller sense of being, I was unstuck. My Wobble Board of Attention was moving freely again.
Last week was particularly strenuous. Repeatedly, I felt stretched to my limits. Often, I noticed myself fixating on what I didn’t like. Imagining my attention as a wobble board helped me to playfully redistributed my attention across a larger reality and regain my balance—over and over again—yielding experiences of fundamental joy and pleasure, even amid difficult circumstances.
The practice always begins with noticing I’m stuck: my attention is fixated on a single quadrant to being; I’ve lost contact with my wholeness. There are then countless ways to make a shift. Simply moving your attention to another quadrant of the wobble board is a good start. Then stay present to what happens next.
If this metaphor inspires your own practice, please leave a comment or otherwise let me know. And if you’d like personalized support, I hope you’ll click here to reach out!
They "wayward wobble" is so informative. When everything feels in flux, sometimes we must listen to the mystical and the physical. Imbalance prevents the embodiment of joy from occurring...when often it is a natural calling.
I am reminded of the Pogo Ball I used to have as a kid. I found it all more enjoyable to get it to balance, then getting it to pogo. Truly, if one tried to pogo ball down the street to your friends house, you tired in about 20 jumps and gave up to walk the rest of the way. It reminds me that just because something is created, marketed even, doesn't mean it is meant for us to enliven, enshrine or embody.
Everything feels like a pogo ball commute these days. Heavy, awkward, tense, giving blisters and exhausting you without making much headway. Our awareness is never static. And it is always why we are not meant to sit at desks for 8-12 hours a day. We are meant to walk, talk, connect, debate, discern and swim in the tides of change.
Breathing should be deep, especially in the riptides of change that appear shallow, but can grip you like a vice if you are not careful and calm. How do we get unstuck? We listen deeply, and honor the emergence and the effervescence of our divine. And then we dive in. Deep breath in first, long exhale out making beautiful bubbles as we reach for the surface. Thank you, Helen for meeting me where I needed this morning.