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Balance
Are you currently sitting on a chair or sofa? Can you stand up? Get to your feet, if possible, and try to stand on one leg. Not a problem? Then close your eyes too and, if this is still too easy, move the raised leg backwards and forwards, or out to the side. So: how good is your balance, then?
Good balance is not just a good thing for your body. It’s also worth being in balance for your mental wellbeing. You will learn from this article how balance affects our health, and how you can improve your balance.
Physical balance
When we hear the word «balance», we think first and foremost of physical balance. In our modern lifestyles, we spend a lot of time sitting down. We move less and less in our daily lives and this lack of physical activity results in our balance getting worse. The muscles we need to keep our body in balance become weaker, and gradually, over time, we lose this ability.
So is balance important at all? Yes – and not just when we get older. It’s true that the risk of losing our balance increases with age. Falls are even the second most common cause – globally – of fatal accidents, after road accidents. Yet the balance plays an important role in childhood and youth, and when we become adults – in brief, all our lives. Good balance aids us to make different movements. The musculature deep inside the torso and back is stimulated, which enables our muscles to react efficiently. This protects us from pulled muscles, for example, or helps us not to fall when we stumble. In addition to the obvious advantages, our fine motor skills and coordination skills benefit from a good sense of balance. High-precision movements are improved and our reaction times to external stimuli may shorten. Another reason in favour of good balance is the positive effect it has on our ability to learn and concentrate. Studies indicate that children with good balance perform better in school. Here’s the good news: targeted training can help children to improve their performance in reading, writing and arithmetic. This effect is particularly evident in children with poor cognitive conditions. Last but not least, there are indications that balance is interconnected with our minds. However, very little research has been done in this field and we can only speak of indications here.
Our bodies need energy to perform what is required of them. One way of refuelling energy is in our diet. Even here, however, we talk about a sort of balance, between energy intake and energy use. When you feel hungry, this is an indication that your body is gradually running out of energy and that it is now relying on a refill. You can, of course, satisfy your hunger with entirely different foods. Not all foods or meals do this job well. A balanced diet – that word again! – definitely contributes to supplying your body with enough good energy.
Are you quite often hungry during the day? And do you want to give your body the best possible boost? Then you can find some tips and ideas for snacks here.
Exercises to improve your balance
Below you can find some exercises to improve your physical balance. You can do these exercises anywhere and easily integrate them into your daily life. Two to three times per week is recommended, but you can do them every day if you like.
- Standing on one leg
Position yourself on a spot with plenty of space around you. Lift one leg up and try to stay standing as calmly as possible. If this is no problem for you, then close your eyes. If this exercise is still too easy, you can also tilt your head backwards or move your raised leg backwards and forwards, or out away from the body and back again. - Lunges
Do forward lunges on both legs alternately. When you do lunges, you’re training your lateral balance and your strength to control your body’s centre of gravity. Try to keep your legs in a straight line as much as possible. This will challenge your balance the most. - Tandem gait
Tandem gait means lifting the rear foot and setting it down directly in front of the front foot when walking. Your toes should touch the heel of the front foot. To make this exercise even more difficult, you could close your eyes. Additionally, moving your head will also make it harder.
These exercises can be made harder still by changing what you stand on. For example, stand on a soft mat or a cushion to do the exercises. Adjust the difficulty to your sensitivity and increase it step by step. Don’t start at the most difficult level straight away.
Inner balance
Now we know how important physical balance can be. But how is our mental balance? Do you sense a balance in your life? Or does your everyday life contain more stress than relaxation? It isn’t always possible to plan enough time for rest and relaxation, although such time can also be actively made up of sports or other hobbies. We devote ourselves to our obligations, tasks and interests. Sometimes we slip out of balance, even though we know that compensating for day-to-day stress is very important and that stress affects us negatively.
What can I do for my inner balance?
- Have a rest, take a break: make time for a conscious, deliberate break. It’s best to plan these as part of your day. However, it doesn’t matter if the break is quite short. A good break of just a few minutes can be inserted into your day on several occasions. Consciously drink a cup of tea, listen to your favourite song, go for a short walk. You can also get creative when scheduling your breaks.
- Sport & physical activity: even if you’re up to your ears in work, and troubled by the thought that you’re constantly jumping from one thing to another, enough exercise can help you with stress. It will boost your self-awareness, make you feel good and promote good sleep. Movement-based mindfulness practices such as tai-chi, qigong or yoga are particularly good here.
- Sleep: restorative sleep is essential for recovery and performance. You won’t be more effective or efficient if you try to sleep less and give yourself more time awake. Make sure you get enough sleep – sometimes a power nap will work miracles.
- Diet: a healthy diet will greatly contribute to your wellbeing. But when you’re in a stressful situation, paying attention to a balanced diet is particularly challenging. Planning menus for the coming days can help, as can deliberately providing yourself with healthy snacks. Drinking enough water is also part of a balanced diet.
- Breathing exercises
- Social contacts: talking to other people, and listening to them, can also help you to manage stress. As we are all social beings, social contact is good for our health in many different ways. When did you last visit a good friend, or talk to them on the phone?
What is your personal recipe for inner balance?
Life balance / Life-domain balance
You have probably heard the phrase «work-life balance» many times already. Because the term could be misleading – life is not just about the balance between work and private life – the phrase «life balance» has been used for a while now. Another phrase that appears again and again in research is «life-domain balance». It expresses the fact that life is about balancing many different areas of life at the same time – keeping them in balance.
A good life balance results in greater wellbeing and better health (e.g., higher life satisfaction, reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression), not just in your private life, but also in the work context. Studies have found links between life balance and job satisfaction, intention to resign, commitment to work and work performance, among other things. It is not just the responsibility of the employee to take time off to recharge their energy or to develop helpful strategies (e.g., good time management); the employer can also contribute to a good life balance. For example, flexible working hours or geographical flexibility (e.g., working in the office or from home, job-sharing) positively benefit employees’ work and private lives. Managers can also help by supporting employees’ personal requests.
Being in balance does not mean that you need give the same time and the same commitment to every single area of your life, or that you must be equally happy in all of them. The different areas are of differing importance to you, and you will divide your resources between them correspondingly. The feeling of balance is highly personal and varies from one individual to the next.
We hope we have given you some exciting facts and inspiring ideas about your balance, and wish you good balance!
«Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you need to keep moving. »
- Albert Einstein -
References
Brough, P., Timms, C., Chan, X. W., Hawkes, A., & Rasmussen, L. (2020). Work–life balance: Definitions, causes, and consequences. In T. Theorell, (Ed.), Handbook of Socioeconomic Determinants of Occupational Health - From Macro-level to Micro-Level Evidence (pp. 473-487). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05031-3_20-1
Buhl, G. (2021, 14 December). Vier gute Gründe, unser Gleichgewicht zu trainieren. Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen. https://www.srf.ch/wissen/gesundheit/achtung-sitzfleisch-vier-gute-gruende-unser-gleichgewicht-zu-trainieren
Einstein. (2021, 9 December). Bessere Balance – Besseres Leben. Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen. https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/einstein/video/bessere-balance---besseres-leben?urn=urn:srf:video:2e49a1fc-451d-47d3-9e98-b3ecc91531fb
Haar, J. M., Russo, M., Suñe, A., & Ollier-Malaterre, A. (2014). Outcomes of work–life balance on job satisfaction, life satisfaction and mental health: A study across seven cultures. Journal of vocational behavior, 85(3), 361-373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.08.010
Pollock, A. S., Durward, B. R., Rowe, P. J., & Paul, J. P. (2000). What is balance? Clinical rehabilitation, 14(4), 402-406. https://doi.org/10.1191/0269215500cr342oa
Reinle, D. (2020, 24 November). Gleichgewicht trainieren: 5 einfache Übungen für zu Hause. CSS. https://www.css.ch/de/privatkunden/meine-gesundheit/bewegung/uebungen/gleichgewicht-uebungen.html
Ulich, E. (2018). 25 Life Domain Balance. In M. Sulzberger & R. J. Zaugg (Eds.), Management Wissen (pp. 277-283). Springer Gabler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-18778-1_25
