One of the things we can all see when we look around is a widespread lack of balance. Whether in our own lives or the ways of the world, we live in times of extremes where we flip flop between too much and too little. Where intensity is followed by collapse and where overdoing and underdoing are the name of the game.

This can look like having too intense of a work week followed by a sedentary weekend in front of a screen. It can look like our bodies being burned up by stress, only to have to get sick to balance out the intensity. It can look like depression and anxiety, dieting and binging or starting up a bunch of the latest activities du jour, only to let them fall by the wayside. And it can look like the vitriol expressed on the world stage and the apathy that follows when we feel there is nothing we can do.

Many of us feel trapped in this pendulum swing between too much and too little; believing this is just the way it is now. That we are victim to something beyond our control. So though we may yearn for a sense of balance in our lives, it can feel out of reach. Or like it is some failing on our part that we just can’t seem to get there. Or maybe that it is some one or some things fault that balance cannot be experienced.

But like all things worth having, a sense of balance is an inside job, has nothing ultimately to do with the externals and is actually innate to us.

Best of all, we have a constant reminder every single day of what balance looks like in the form of the natural world. And right now, as we enter the time of The Fall Equinox, where light and dark, for a moment in time, are balanced, we are being offered a visceral reminder of what we already know and possess.

That being, that when we are attuned to our own natural rhythms, balance is the result.

When looked at from this perspective, the externals become secondary to our capacity to tune into ourselves and what it is we are knowing and needing. The ways of the world, life and other people becoming an opportunity to sink more solidly within our own personal rhythms. To that place deep inside that knows how to ride the ups and downs of existence.

This is different than getting bashed around according to the latest crisis or challenge of the moment. But it requires both a shift in your perspective when it comes to what is happening, as well as a running practice to keep you close to your own experience.

To claim your reactions and responses are your responsibility is an enormous undertaking. This perspective shift means your reactions are yours and do not emanate from some external source. Not only is this the work of a lifetime, it will bless you with the greatest empowerment you can imagine when you learn to stop blaming what is outside of you for how you feel.

When it comes to a running practice to help you remember, your breath and your capacity to bring yourself back to the moment you are in, is the directest route to helping you connect with your own natural rhythms. The very same ones that will guide you into the next choice that needs to be made to help you live in a continual flow of inner adjustments; all circling around that often elusive experience of balance.

This all looks like staying very close to yourself, no matter what is going on. You get very intentional about checking in with your experience as you move across your day. So even when there is a difficult conversation or too much on your plate, you own your response to that intensity and you make a conscious choice to feel yourself breathing. Maybe you even ask yourself a question like, What is making this so difficult for me right now?

This is not about fixing yourself, judging yourself, or even trying to create balance. Instead, it is merely a moment in time where you tune into yourself. It is in this turning towards yourself, coupled with an open wondering about your experience, that allows you to tap back into your own innate rhythm. From there, balance is the natural outcome. No matter what is happening on the outside.