The Pendulum Principle: A Balanced Approach to Fitness

Imagine your life is like a pendulum 

There are 2 extremes of the pendulum: the yin and the yang, the expansion and the contraction, the doing and the non-doing, the light and the dark, the masculine and the feminine. Everything has 2 extremes. If you go to the extremes, you cannot survive. The middle way is where you want to live.

If you pull the pendulum out one way, it will swing back just that far the other way. The degree to which you will act like an animal is the exact degree to which you were starved enough to bring up your animal instinct.

The Tao is the middle. There is no energy pushing in either direction. The pendulum can balance with things like food, relationships, money, doing, not-doing, and everything else. Everything has its yin and yang. The Way is the place in which these forces balance gently.

This principle holds true in every aspect of life. If you are in balance, you eat when it’s time to eat, in a way that nourishes your body. To act otherwise wastes energy dealing with the consequences of not eating enough, eating too much or eating the wrong foods. It is much more efficient to deal with the body in a balanced manner than to be burdened with the effects of the extremes. You waste tremendous energy at the extremes. The more extreme you are, the harder you have to work to return to equilibrium and the quest runs your life.

The pendulum won’t keep swinging to the extremes unless you feed the extremes with energy. Just let the extremes go. Don’t participate in them and the pendulum will naturally come toward the centre. All the energy that had been wasted becomes available to you.

You could also use a bow and arrow analogy. Perfectionism forces you to pull too far back on the arrow, when you let go in some area, you will slingshot forward the same amount. Restriction (aka control) leads to lack of control once control is released. 

“Perfectionism didn’t lead to results, it lead to peanut butter” – Brene Brown

Be compassionate with yourself, find the balance aka middle way and you will live in harmony.