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Living is a balancing act. Ordinary activities like walking, running, or riding a bike require the brain to keep the body in balance. A dancer's poised elegance and a tightrope walker's breathtaking performance are feats of balance. Language abounds with expressions and figures of speech that invoke balance. People fret over work-life balance or try to eat a balanced diet. The concept crops up from politics—checks and balances, the balance of power, balanced budgets—to science, in which ideas of equilibrium are crucial. Why is balance so fundamental, and how do physical and metaphorical balance shed light on each other?
Balancing Bodies and Lives
Balance and the Brain
Vertigo, Nausea, and Falls
Consciousness
How Metaphors Work
Nature
Medicine
Society
The Arts
Philosophy
Appendix: Balance and Imbalance Metaphors