I just switched my mouse to the left side. It was long overdue. The other night in yoga when my teacher instructed us to interlock our fingers and stretch up, my right wrist started making popcorn. My awareness went into my wrist and I realized that I had been putting a very unfair strain on just that one. Why would I favor my right side unto its detriment when I’ve got a perfectly good hand on the other side just slacking off?

The answer is laziness. I am accustomed to using my right hand to navigate my desktop. It feels easier. It feels faster. But what if I continue to push myself in this lopsided manner. Eventually my body will force me to slow down against my will. My wrist will start to hurt. The side that I favored for its effectiveness and speed will start to grind down like an old jalopy. So I made the decision to slow myself down. No big deal, I just picked up my mouse pad and stuck it on the other side of my keyboard and pulled the mouse over there with it. At first, I felt frustrated. My left hand was not as obedient as my right. It would slip past my target too fast. My finger would lag on those double clicks leaving me wondering where my window was. “Hello, I clicked you! Oh , I guess I didn’t.” But now I’m getting the hang of it. Still not as fast, but definitely relieved. My right wrist has thanked me for putting in the effort to seek balance.

This is just one example. We suffer imbalances out of habit all over the place. We favor one foot when we walk.  We ask to talk to Mom on the phone rather than Dad because shes easier to chat with. We read one kind of story over and over again because it is familiar and satisfying rather than broaden our horizons. We eat toaster pastries and an orange juice for breakfast instead of going to the trouble to make something more alkaline. We don’t know what day the trash gets picked up because our partner always takes out the trash and we do the dishes just because that’s the arrangement.  And here’s the kicker: We look at relationships during Saturn in Libra because relationships are more exciting and fun than adjusting all these other mundane parts of our lives.

Can you identify an imbalance in your life that you have avoided because it would be WORK to correct it?

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