The 1st Step To Better Balance (as a student-athlete)

And then it dawned on me, if you don’t know what your Guna is, or if you don’t know which one is more prevalent in your life, it’s really hard to design balance without that understanding.

So today, what I’m going to do is go through the three gunas and help you identify which one you align best with.

Once you know what you align with, you can create balance in your life by adding a little bit more of the other.

Balance looks different for each and every one of you.

Understanding Balance

Let’s talk about balance today. Because this is a word that gets thrown around all day long, and it really kind of loses its cache when we don’t specify what it means for each individual.

Because what balance looks like for me and what balance looks like for you is going to be totally different.

The Three Gunas

In yoga, we have something called the gunas, represented by different types of energy in the world: rajas, tamas, and sattva. Within each thing, it doesn’t matter if it’s a piece of furniture, a mindset, a food, or a person, one of these traits is more prevalent than another.

• Rajas: Fiery energy – Type A personality, spicy food, always on the go.
• Tamas: Heavy, lethargic, grounded, slower-paced.
• Sattva: Balanced energy, peaceful – represented by linen, fruits, vegetables, and water.

Balancing Energies

What we’re trying to do within our lives is to recognize the energy that’s present in whatever we eat, whoever we surround ourselves with, our mentality, and find balance so that we can arrive at sattva.

Surprise, surprise!

I think a lot of people are really surprised by this, but by Nature, I’m extremely tamasic. If you did not push me, or if I did not create systems within my life, I would be a very sedentary person. I can do nothing like a boss – sit around in sweatpants, Netflix – you want to hang out, I’m your girl.

Hot Take: Creating Sattva

So what I do to create sattva is that I create lots of mechanisms and systems within my life that push me towards discipline.
This is why I get so excited about discipline because it balances my energies and allows me to move forward, be the person that I always aspired to be.

Identifying Your Guna

I’m asking you, what Guna are you? Rajasic – high energy, type A, always on the move? Tamasic or tamas – slower-paced, likes to chill, reserved? Or do you lean more towards sattvic?

There are very few sattvic people, those who float above everything. It’s hard to have that as your predominant Guna. Most of us fall into rajas or tamas.

Riding the Middle

Once you understand this, you can do what I like to call ride the middle. Riding the middle is how you survive the long game, crucial for sustaining your energies.

Practical Steps for Balance

Now that you know which one you are, what types of activities, what types of people, what type of environment do you need to create to arrive at balance?

Conclusion

I hope this information was helpful, and that you take an active stance in creating more balance within your life. If you’re still struggling to figure out what you should be focusing on, I’m going to drop this free resource below – your 80/20 Life Builder.

It will tell you what to prioritize, helping you understand your Guna, and fill in those blanks of what to do with your time with the things that are most useful to you.

Remember, what balance looks like for you and for me will be two totally different things.

As always, I’m out here rooting for you so big, you have no idea.

Until next time, I will see you soon.

A-