Balance, now here is a topic that has been hounding me since the day I was born. An understanding of balance seems to be a very important idea when it comes to living a happy, 'balanced' life here on Earth. It has come to my attention that the Universe and everything within it is governed by the principle of evenness between positive and negative energies. Both in the realms of spirituality and science there have been many people over the years who have been discussing the concept that all things in Nature have a natural inclination to find a balanced state of being.

After any chemical reaction between atoms, (which of course all matter that exists is mad up of), the protons and electrons move into a position where their energies are of equal value. As far as I know all religions and belief systems held by human beings state that to find enlightenment or peace one has to experience all the necessary feelings and emotions integral to living a full life. This means that one has to experience both suffering and joy to truly gain knowledge about what it means to be alive. If you run from your feelings, you are not walking the 'middle path' and therefore you're destined to have an imbalance in terms of gaining wisdom and happiness.

Let's look at a few occurrences that happen regularly in the life of our Universe. How about the process of a star exploding out in space? One might believe that this happening is a negative one, especially if it is our Sun that we are talking about, as this will mean the end of life on our world. But what happens when a star explodes? It has been understood that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only move from one place to another. Therefore, once our Sun explodes, hopefully many billion years from now, the energy will travel out into space only to conglomerate and converge once again to form new stars and subsequent life. Even if the energy of our Sun just dissipates back into the general energy of space we can perceive this as a balanced equation in the respect that it is that exact space that our Sun evolved from in the first place.

What about a romantic relationship? For a friendship to work properly between two parties the amount of energy or effort in terms of love and attention must be equal. If it is otherwise, one person will undoubtedly feel as though they are being neglected, or that they are giving too much and so feel depleted. How about a business deal? Either companies or people have to come away from the trade feeling that they have gained at least the equal amount of value as they have given away.

Now let us look at one of the hardest situations to perceive as being balanced: the tragedy. Let's say someone you know and love dearly dies suddenly in a car accident. I am very sorry to imagine this scenario but we have to be aware that driving is one of the most dangerous pastimes in contemporary society.

First of all there is the grief and suffering that comes with the loss of this intimate connection in the physical world. However, the experience can also be looked at in a positive light for many reasons. We learn so much about life and ourselves from tragedy. We learn about how much we truly loved that person when we look back in retrospect at all the good times you had together. We become stronger individuals after the period of suffering passes so that if another crisis presents itself on our path we might just be the only one who can act in that intense moment. We also learn one of the most important rules in our reality here in the Universe, that everything (including ourselves) is temporary.

The Universe will always exist, but all within it is in constant flux. This is another paradox of balance that rings true: temporary existence within permanent existence. If you look at anything long enough you will see that there are always multiple ways of perceiving it. However, once you've judged or assessed that item or concept, you will find that the opposite belief or perspective can also be seen as true. Most probably someone will point it out to you whether you like it or not.

Let's take this article itself as example. I might see it as something very relevant and important. I might believe that it is a good representation of my views on reality and be happy that I have been given the opportunity to share them with whichever of my fellow beings wishes to read my ideas. However, someone else may perceive this article as a total waist of time, a blast of hot air from some nobody who believes that they know something. The funny thing is that that person may also be the voice of my own shadow-side that lives within. That is what I mean about balance: it is everywhere.