Volume 18 - Moderation

I think this is going to be a pretty short entry.

I woke up this morning, after several months of some pretty intense work, feeling like I really need a vacation.

Funny, I had said this in early December, when the busyness of the holiday season was before me. Life had been very full and very busy for many months already.

 I had just decided to 'clear the decks', 'take a break', give myself some time and space to attend to everything that needed attending to. I was going to take two months off from work outside the house, to focus on laying a new ground. 

When the phone rang a couple of times that month with offers of interesting work, I almost instantly forgot my resolve and eagerly jumped at the chance to move into areas that called to me deeply.

I had no idea how much time and energy completing those contracts would end up requiring.

And now, here I am, fully three months later, that work done and almost a whole month spread out in front of me with no other work commitments, and many other undone (and delayed tasks) waiting.

Whew, are we exhausted. It's tempting to try to stop the world and get off for a few weeks.

One of the things that occupied my time this past month involved looking at the ways that an institution and its members were 'out of balance' and making recommendations as to how they could attempt to address them.

Ironically, doing that so enthusiastically put me out of balance. There were many 12-plus hour days when my feet saw only the floor between the kitchen, (where I sat, at my laptop, poring over data), the bathroom and the bedroom, where I flopped down in exhaustion at the end of the day ... only to arise the next morning and do it all over again.

I've been pretty fortunate in recent years. My 'out of home' work time has been more balanced than many people's; and the nature of the work means there are often many days between 'gigs', which has allowed my life overall to be more balanced than most. But there's a lot of preparation time for the kind of work I do, and if I were to be totally honest with myself, I'd have to say that when I'm working on a workshop, life has at times been pretty out of balance.

This past few months, more than ever. I've known it, but kept putting off doing much about it; telling myself, 'Once i get this behind me, there'll be space for a more balanced life'. I now see that creating that space is an 'inside job' -- and not creating it is foolish at best, dangerous at worst.

The Hopi call life out balance koyanisqaatsi -- one of the worst spiritual illnesses.

I see, with new eyes and deeper understanding, that "moderation [truly] is the silken thread running through the pearl chain of all virtues," as Joseph Hall put it. With all the emphasis on 'sustainability' in the news, and in spite of my being a mentor to others at times on creating 'A Pace of Grace' or sustainable life, I once again have fallen onto the Western pathway --'overdoing' -- which inevitably leads to overdone.

Living a life of moderation is certainly not a new concept. The ancient Greeks inscribed it on the temple of Apollo at Delphi: Meden Agan -- 'Moderation in all things.' And what is moderation? 'The process of eliminating or lessening extremes.' Wikipedia

Decades of living with an 'energy illness' taught me the importance of living in moderation.

How did I forget this important life principle, and think I could 'borrow' from all those years of living moderately and not face the true cost?

Like the false premise behind the 'sub-prime' mortgage fiasco that threatened to bring down the world's financial stability, my borrowing from my capital (believing that my energy reserves could sustain three months of daily overdrafts) has put me in a deficit. And now the bill has come due.

Yet again, I see my foolhardiness. Living this way won't work for me, or for my health, in the long term.

Sigh ... how to get back into balance after a quarter of a year being 'out of it'? And how to I ensure that I don't get back on that track again? Where do I begin?

I'd like to take the month of March to learn more about how to live a life of moderation ... every day, and in every way.

Linda Kavelin Popov says that 'moderation is being content with enough. Moderation protects us from the pull of addictive desires. We do not grasp to do or have more, in the belief that we are lacking. We do not try to be everything to everyone. We set healthy boundaries that value our time and energy. We protect ourselves from the stress of overdoing. We discern our own perfect rhythm. Moderation isn't deprivation. It is loving ourselves enough to choose what is just right."

Whew. Reading that, I now realize that being so out of balance these last few weeks will make it more challenging to live in balance over the next few weeks. There are many tasks I was not able to accomplish during the frenzy of work and deadlines that took up February. This was because I was not practicing moderation.

I now see that thinking I could take a whole month off at this point, merely to recuperate, is not only not realistic, it is not moderate.

Rather than going to the other extreme -- from working like 'an addict' to doing nothing (and leaving so many undone things that to complete them would require 'working like an addict' again) -- I want to get off the roller coaster. I want to regain my equilibrium.

I really need to call on "self-discipline to [learn how to] create a healthy balance between work, rest, reflection and play" (Linda Popov again). And not just for the month of March -- I need to learn how to do this every day.

It's a way to respect both myself and others, and it is a path to true contentment. I'm going to start by making a commitment today to create a sustainable life, a life of moderation.

If any of this resonates with you, I invite you to join me.

Namaste~

~ Kate

The Practice of Moderation

I spend my time and energy sustainably.

I remember to pray and to play.

I am free of addictions.

I carry responsibility wisely.

I protect myself from the stress of excess.

I live gently and gracefully.

I am thankful for the gift of Moderation. It frees me to enjoy my life.

Reflection Questions

How can I create a balance -- this day -- between work, rest, reflection and play?

What boundaries do I need to set around my time and energy?

Whom do I need to set boundaries with, and what would those be?

What activities 'recreate' me, energize me and bring me joy?