Balance: skill or sense?

We perceive the world around us through sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing. We perceive our self through proprioception and interoception. Proprioception is the sense of where the parts of our self are in space, and our orientation with respect to the pull of gravity. Interoception is the sense of our emotions – for example frustration, anger, joy – and of what is happening inside our body – for example, the digestive process.

These seven senses create the only inputs we have to experience life. Our entire consciousness is built on those inputs.

Balance is the ability to organize our self to carry out an activity with maximum ease and control. Being in balance requires:

• proprioception;

• an ability to move different parts of our self in relation to each other; and

• a knowledge of how to achieve an effective organisation of the self.

Balance is not static. Even though the word evokes stability, any act of balance (for example, sitting on a chair) is made up of many small movements that together maintain balance. The more challenging the act of balance (imagine walking along a slackline), the finer proprioception, ability to move, and self-knowledge need to be.

Balance can therefore be seen as a skill rather than a sense, and as something distinct from any of the senses. But in practice, human beings tend to develop skill in physical balance in tandem with developing their sense of proprioception. We are unlikely to come across a situation where a person has superb proprioception and lousy balance. And it is simply impossible to have balance without proprioception.

This concept of balance can be extended to the emotional part of life. Interoception is essential – being able to sense what our feelings are. In addition to interoception, we need an ability to shape our emotions and a knowledge of what is an effective emotional organization of our self for the act we are engaged in, if we are to find and maintain balance. Human beings tend to develop emotional balance in tandem with developing interoception; we are unlikely to come across a situation where a person has superb interoception and lousy emotional balance.

Whether we consider physical or emotional balance, it is a combination of sense and skill. The development of the sensing part and the skill part are so closely related that it is impossible to tell them apart.

How do you find and maintain balance? Please tell us in a comment.