Balance

Balance Isn’t Just for Tightrope Walkers: Your Health Depends on It

Balance. It’s one of those words that pops up everywhere—in motivational posters, yoga studios, and conversations about work-life harmony. But balance isn’t just about mastering a yoga pose or figuring out how to eat cake without guilt (although that’s important too). Balance is the unsung hero of your health and longevity, quietly working behind the scenes to keep your body thriving.

The Art of Balance (and Why It’s Not Optional)

Let’s start with the obvious: balance is everywhere in nature. Night and day. Work and rest. Netflix and… eventually sleep. Your body follows the same principle, constantly juggling everything from hormones to blood sugar to keep you alive and kicking.

Meet Homeostasis: Your Body’s Balance Guru

Homeostasis is a fancy word for your body’s ability to keep its internal environment stable. Think of it like a high-tech thermostat. Too hot? Your body cools down by sweating. Too cold? You start shivering like a phone on vibrate mode. It’s all about making micro-adjustments to keep everything—temperature, blood pressure, hydration—just right.

Now imagine if that thermostat broke. Your blood sugar starts behaving like a roller coaster, your stress hormones take a permanent vacation in Overdrive City, and your energy levels crash harder than a toddler after a sugar rush. That’s what happens when balance disappears—and it’s the starting point for most chronic diseases.

Why Balance is the Key to Longevity

Let’s play a game of Jenga. Every block represents a part of your health: sleep, nutrition, stress, exercise, relationships. You can pull one block (like missing sleep for a deadline), and your tower stays steady. But pull out too many blocks—chronic stress, skipping meals, constant inflammation—and suddenly the whole thing comes crashing down. Sometimes, the tower stands very shakily, other times it looks like it is going to stand, but a sneeze can bring it crashing down!

Energy Balance: Your body needs just the right amount of fuel—too much leads to fat storage, too little leaves you feeling drained.
Stress Recovery: Stress isn’t the villain, but chronic stress is. Recovery periods are where growth and healing happen.
Mind-Body Connection: Balancing physical health with mental and emotional wellbeing ensures you’re not just living longer but living better.

When your body’s systems are in harmony, it shows. You’re energised, focused, and less likely to snap at someone for taking the last parking spot.

The Philosophy of Balance: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Life

Balance isn’t just a modern wellness buzzword. Ancient philosophies have been preaching it for centuries:

Ayurveda: The 5,000-year-old Indian system of medicine emphasises balancing the three doshas for optimal health.
Taoism: The yin and yang concept teaches us that opposing forces—like activity and rest—are interconnected and interdependent.

Here’s the kicker: balance doesn’t mean perfection. It means adaptation. Some days you’ll drink green juice and meditate for 20 minutes. Other days, you’ll binge-watch a show with a bag of chips. And that’s okay. It’s the overall rhythm that matters, not the occasional misstep.

Small Steps to Reclaim Balance (Without Falling Asleep Reading This)

Let’s shake up the usual advice. Here are some fresh, creative ways to bring balance back into your life:

Practice the Art of “Micro-Rebellion”: Take a 5-minute dance break in the middle of your workday. Bonus points if you make your coworkers join in. This works because it breaks the sedentary routine. If you pull this off, 5-6 times a day - you'll get about 30 mins of movement!
Swap Doomscrolling for “Stargazing”: Look at the night sky for five minutes instead of your phone before bed. Trust me, it’s just as mesmerising and way less stressful. This works like a mini mindfulness session!
Channel Your Inner “Goldilocks” at Meals: Not too much, not too little—just enough to feel satisfied without needing a nap. Yeah, enough has been said about this, and this is a good hack.
Reclaim Your “Two-Minute Vacations”: Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and imagine yourself at your favourite place in the world. No visa or passport required. This works because the brain doesn't differentiate between really seeing those places and imagining them - from the perspective of chemicals that calm you. So while going in person is the real deal, this is a hack.
Turn Mundane Tasks Into Mini Rituals: Washing dishes? Use it as a mindfulness exercise. (Or just invest in a dishwasher and meditate while it runs.)

My Balance

How do I practice what I preach? My situation is a bit more complicated - since I write about food and have to attend food events while also working full time, but I've managed to find my balance too. Yes, it is not perfect, but it has gotten a lot better from a few years ago.

I've split my life into Daily Mode, Unwind Mode, Soul Mode and Revive Mode. Under Work Mode, I'm very careful with my life. I get about 1g/kg of protein, I get my fibre, I get my teas and I am very careful with what I eat, I get 2-3 rounds of circuit exercises, 1 day of balance training - well you get the idea. This happens typically 5.5 days a week. Why that 0.5? Well, I get my balance training on Saturdays. So Monday to first half of Saturday, I am in my Daily Mode. If I do have a meeting or I have to do a food tasting, I don't think too much as long as it is not more than 4-5 meals a month.

Unwind Mode - This is my measured indulgence, both for body and soul. I get to meet friends, lots of mindless talking, and while I do get to indulge in food, I don't overdo it. Think one burger or a pizza or biriyani or a loaded sandwich (and not all at the same time). I usually don't end up overeating since I am mindful of how much I eat, but I'm not too careful about what I eat.

Soul Mode - This is pretty much not meant for the body at all. This usually happens when I travel - I thoroughly enjoy the food of the place, I explore like crazy and I don't keep track of what I eat or how much I eat. If I get some exercise, great, but if I cant, I don't let it bother me. Since I walk a lot during travel, that kind of makes up, but it is not conscious. If that shaves off a few years of my life, so be it, but this is to make my life worth living.

Revive Mode - This happens during two times - when I am back from travel, I try cut down my Unwind Mode and go very mindful for 2 or sometimes 3 weeks straight. Getting my weight back to my pre-travel weight is usually a metric I use (among other metrics). The other time is when I do a 2 or 3 week planned detox once (twice if I fed my soul too much) a year.

You should create you own balance (you are welcome to copy mine).

The Takeaway

Balance isn’t about doing everything perfectly; it’s about doing enough things well enough to keep your tower steady. Your health—like your life—is a delicate dance between effort and ease, discipline and indulgence, science and soul.

So take a breath, find your footing, and remember: balance is a journey, not a destination.

And if you happen to topple over once in a while, that’s okay. Even tightrope walkers need a safety net.

Now, go stargaze, dance, or take a two-minute vacation. Your body—and your sanity—will thank you.