In Yoga we study the ancient Indian scriptures that are known as the Vedas. Another name for the Vedas is “shruti”, which means “that which is heard”. The ancient Sages heard these truths deep in their meditation. They didn’t read them or hear them from someone else they simply heard them.
These Vedas discuss the gunas, the three forces or qualities in the World; sattva, rajas and tamas. Sattva is tranquility; rajas, too much activity; tamas, inaction. Rajas and tamas are the extremes; sattva is the balance of them both. The gunas are part of the cosmic vibrations action, inaction and serenity.
I’ve already written about vibrations in Wavelength and how everything is moved by this vibration, Einstein even says so. But our moods are changed by the gunas. Sometimes we are happy and wholesome, sometimes we are sad and bad and sometimes we are at peace, it’s all the way the wind of the gunas blows on you.
We see this naturally happening every day if we open our eyes and observe. Have you ever seen how beautiful and serene the World seems at sunrise and sunset? Not too much action or inaction, then as the day breaks the rajas activity comes into play and on the flip side, as night falls, tamas shows its face.
But you know what, as humans with flaws (and myself being rather rajas) I think it’s better to have a little of everything, some balance. We are not always in the same mental state. If I’m a little too rajas, I’ll try to do something beautiful, something selfless, to balance out my gunas and bring me nearer to sattva.
“ If you are moderate in eating, playing, sleeping, staying awake and avoiding extremes in everything you do, you will see that these (yoga) practices eliminate all your suffering.” Baghavad Gita
In simpler language, Yoga is the middle path and it is all about balance, moderation in everything. So I believe balance is the key to a serene, blissful life.
So that’s our lives, our life. Pretty important I think, but you know something way less important, yet very blissful that requires balance? Surfing. Without balance there is no surfing. Literally. When you scramble to that popup, release the fingers from the board and slide down the face of a wave on your feet you require perfect balance.
Balance is described by physicians as postural equilibrium, which doesn’t sound so technical, but when you add in influences from the inner ear, eyesight and our general clumsiness or rigidness, it does get a bit messy in surfing terms.
But I’ll try to explain balance in laymen’s terms. There are two main variables; the centre of mass and the base of support. In surfing the centre of mass is the centre of your body. The base of support is the area of contact underneath your body, your surfboard. If the your body (centre of mass) is in alignment over the your board (base of support), then you are balanced. If the centre of mass is not over the base of support, the object will fall over.
The bigger the base of support (surfboard), the easier it is to balance and the closer the centre of mass (body) is to the base of support (surfboard), the easier it is to balance. This is why laying down on a board is a lot easier than standing. So basically the bigger the board and the wider apart your feet are on a board, the more balance you will have.
Learning to master the pop up on land and of course in the water encourages balance. Going from lying down in the prone position to the proper standing position is balancing and as with everything practice makes perfect.
To summarise the key aspects of balance from a surfers perspective it’s pretty simple;
Don’t look down, don’t look up, just look where you’re going, gaze the eyes level with the lands horizon. Don’t stick your ass out, don’t bend at the waist, just bend the knees and keep the body in balance with whatever the gravitational pull of the ocean is doing.
Finding balance whilst surfing is actually easier than it is in the real world. You get the chance to practice over and over again without judgement. Fall off, face plant, wobble around, stick the butt out, it’s all fine. Just get back up and do it again until it clicks.
Oh and practicing yoga regularly improves posture and helps with balance tremendously, so get down to your local yoga studio and watch your surfing evolve. As does riding a bike.