Homeostatic Equilibrium - It’s a Tricky Job Being Human!

It sounds like a big phrase doesn’t it, ‘Homeostatic Equilibrium.’[1] It’s a fancy term that describes what most of us are trying to do every day of our lives. Take those coffees, for instance, that stack upon one another in conjunction with the lack of water drunk, and we see the reason for the sharp headache pain in the back of the head and neck--our body’s trying to tell us something.

What a marvellous thing the human body is. It regulates us to feel warm or cold, happy or sad, relaxed or stressed--every bodily system integrating and interacting to produce a congruence of signs and symptoms of how we actually are, at any given time.

The older we get the trickier it seems it is to maintain this homeostatic equilibrium--bodily, mental, emotional and spiritual balance. From bodily niggles to the inevitable struggles of life that contend with our emotiospiritual states, we do find it hard to maintain a happy, healthy middle-ground.

One positive thing we can do to engender more wellbeing is meditate by finding some quiet ‘soul time’ in each day, and particularly as a busy day or week looms. (And yet, the real art is finding the ability to ‘meditate in the moment,’ for this too is possible.)

Predicting high and low times, and planning ahead by taking time out, can go a long way toward us self-facilitating great outcomes where we inspire ourselves with an increased level of self-management. In this, we don’t allow our wellbeing to skew. We predict it and cater for it.

This, of course, takes a lot of courage as we resist the onslaught upon us in relation to life today. There are many things that are going to threaten our homeostatic peace. And for anyone who’s ever suffered depression or panic attacks achieving ongoing homeostatic equilibrium is more vital than ever.

Is there anything more important in the ‘operational’ context regarding our wellbeing?

We are no good to anyone, least of all ourselves, when we dilute all our energies and passions, losing our homeostatic equilibrium’s into the bargain! Such waste.

Wisdom has us planning life as prudently as possible, saving up reserves for the times they’re needed, and certainly seeking to learn from past mistakes where our homeostatic equilibrium’s were shot to pieces.

[1] Homeostasis means, “A relatively stable state of equilibrium or a tendency toward such a state between the different but interdependent elements or groups of elements of an organism, population, or group.” From, “Homeostasis.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. Retrieved 8 August 2009 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Homeostasis