The Pendulum and the Process
finding balance in all this
A pendulum is a weight suspended from a string, free to swing back and forth. When it’s knocked out of equilibrium—its resting position—it swings. Momentum carries it in one direction, and then back the other way. It oscillates. But over time, the swinging slows, the movement softens, and the pendulum returns to the place it most wants to be: equilibrium.
And here’s the thing—pretty much everything in the world wants to find equilibrium.
Hot chocolate cools when left out; a glass of cold lemonade warms up. In both cases, the drink is moving toward the temperature of the air around it. Equilibrium. Balance. Stability. This principle is woven into the physical world around us.
What Is Equilibrium, Really?
In science, equilibrium usually refers to an equal balance between opposing forces. In chemistry, it’s the moment when forward and reverse reactions are happening at the same rate. In biology, we call it homeostasis: the body’s natural effort to maintain internal stability.
In general, equilibrium is the middle ground. Not too much. Not too little. A place where extremes soften and give way to something more stable—more livable.
Life Swings Like a Pendulum
Things in the universe tend toward balance. And when our lives get knocked off course, I’ve noticed we behave like pendulums too. At least, I do.
Take my eating disorder as an example. When I was deep in anorexia, I wasn’t eating nearly enough to support my body. The pendulum had swung hard in one direction—far from equilibrium. Then came recovery. I was eating more than my body needed, gaining more weight than I was emotionally prepared for. That was the opposite extreme.
But like any pendulum, that intense swing couldn’t last forever. With time and patience, the motion slows. The extremes soften. The swings become smaller. Eventually, I believe this part of my life will settle into a rhythm that feels right. A new kind of equilibrium.
Balance Isn’t Just Science
It’s not only science that talks about balance.
Aristotle wrote about the golden mean—the virtuous balance between excess and deficiency. Courage, for example, sits between recklessness and cowardice. Even politics echoes this pattern: the U.S. Constitution was designed as a response to imbalance. Too few freedoms under British rule. Too little structure under the Articles of Confederation. The goal was something in between.
The Work of Recovery
Finding balance is essential—especially in recovery. But here’s what I’m learning: you don’t just wake up and have balance. That’s not how it works.
Life is motion. Recovery is process. The pendulum has to swing. You have to feel the extremes to eventually find the middle ground.
The good news? Physics tells us that things tend to balance out, given time and space and patience. So if you’re in the middle of the swing—if you feel like you’re lurching from one extreme to the other—just remember:
You’re not broken. You’re just in motion.
And motion means you’re getting closer to center.