Wellness and the myth of balance, part two: our ancestors had cycles, not balance

In this series, I explore the concept of “balance” as it is peddled in the multi-trillion dollar wellness industry. I explore why I think balance as a goal is unrealistic, false, and sometimes dangerous.

In part one of this series, I explained how the modern wellness ideal of balance is not cosmologically sound within the context of Chinese philosophy. Rather, the continual rising and falling of Yin and Yang creates the forces that generate life. The stasis of Yin Yang balance is in fact associated with death. Rather than aiming for balance, we should strive to understand cycles of Yin and Yang and thrive within them. In this essay, I look at the lives of our ancestors who lived with only primitive technologies, and see how their lives were not in balance, but rather had cycles.

For modern people striving for wellness perfection, the goal is to bring all aspects of life into balance within a given day: food, rest, emotions, exercise, work, hydration, skin care, etc. Were one to pursue wellness at the highest level, it would be a full time job, between the food preparation, exercise classes, recovery naps, meditation, and all the other necessities of the wellness lifestyle. What, then, is the purpose of one’s life? What are we bringing to the community if we spend all our time cultivating personal wellbeing?

Our ancestors, contrary to popular myths of people living “in sync with the seasons,” or “close to nature,” generally did not know balance because seasons are not balanced. Just as the slices of our Yin Yang pie may be dominated by Yin or Yang, our ancestors’ lives were often dominated by periods of work and relatively less work, periods of more Yang or more Yin.

Let’s start with hunter-gatherers. From studies of the few remaining hunter-gatherer communities, we know this lifestyle involves about four hours of “work” per day. Once basic necessities have been procured, people stop working, and are free to socialize or create art. But that life would involve periods spent working harder following migrating herds, or moving to where a food is abundant in a certain season. Migration may involve more strenuous days of traveling. Adverse environmental circumstances that damage food sources subjected our hunter-gatherer ancestors to periods of food scarcity, causing long hours of work to be expended without much to show for it.

Nomadic herding also shows the cycling of Yin and Yang rather than a state of balance. Nomads drive their herds across vast regions, often up and down elevations as pasture becomes available with the seasons. Some parts of the year may be relatively quiet, with pasture under snow. Then spring brings the birthing time for new animals, the need to milk and make dairy products, and the herds must be driven to fresh pasture. Days are long and full of the various chores of animal husbandry, preparing and preserving meat, dairy, and hide products, as well as making and breaking camp. Then autumn recedes, the community settles down in winter camps to await the spring again.

Two sheep expecting fresh pasture

The lives of farming people also lack day to day balance. Plowing the field is very hard work, but it is done only a few times a year. Seed is planted, and then the farmer hopes nature will care for the crop while she does some fence repair and perhaps some irrigation if the weather is dry. At harvest time, work days are very long, as the crop must be brought in before bad weather, and stored properly to last the winter. Then in winter there may be little to do beyond caring for the farm animals, and the farmer is free to visit with family and friends, and enjoy some rest before spring brings another round of work.

Portland has its own Yin Yang cycles. The short, dreary days of winter drive Portlanders indoors. The overcast sky and cool temperatures encourage a Yin state of being. By high summer, Yang has taken over and Portlanders work hard at seizing all our glorious days. People are camping, going to the coast, camping again, going to the coast again, in a frenzied cycle of active play. We claw at the last weekends of September, getting in one more camping trip before the rains, and Yin, once again dominate our region.

We are human beings living in a seasonal ecosystem. Yin and Yang go up and down, and those forces are, and should be, reflected in our lives. To strive for the the same balance every day of the year is to deny that changing dynamic and create an artificial stasis. Yes, our ancestors lived close to nature, so what they lived with was the rise and fall of Yin and Yang. The balance is over the year, not the day, week, or month. What season is it as you are reading this blog? Is it summer, the Yang time? Is it winter, the Yin time? Or Spring, when Yang is bursting forth, or Autumn, when Yin is creeping over the land? How are your choices harmonious with the overall Yin Yang balance? What were your ancestors doing this time of year?