DAVID SIMON MD: The ancient healing tradition of Ayurveda views health as more than the absence of disease; it is a state of physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. To achieve this state requires that we nurture our body's innate desire to live in balance.

For many mothers coping with stress and unrelenting demands, the experience of balance may seem like an unattainable dream. However, it's important to keep in mind that balance isn't about struggling to impose a sense of perfect order in our life or getting organized 'once and for all'. Balance is the ability to remain flexible and calm in the face of constant change.

Ayurveda offers many practical tools for cultivating balance that are easy to integrate into our daily schedule.

Meditation
Meditation is a powerful tool to quiet the mind and rest the body. As mental traffic slows, the body relaxes and we enter a state of deep, restful awareness. Rather than depending upon external situations, circumstances and people to feel good, we naturally generate and radiate inner contentment and vital energy.

As numerous scientific studies have shown, a regular meditation practice produces tangible benefits for mental and physical health, including:

- Lowered blood pressure
- Slower heart rate
- Reduced production of 'stress hormones',' including cortisol and adrenaline
- More efficient oxygen use by the body
- Increased production of the anti-aging hormone DHEA
- Improved immune function
- Decreased anxiety and depression

Beyond these significant health benefits, the greatest gift of meditation is the sense of calm and inner peace it brings into daily life. Emerging from your meditation session, you take some of the stillness and silence with you as you move through your day and interact with your family and children. During pregnancy, when a mother takes the time to quiet her mind and centre herself, the unborn baby also gains the physiological benefits of restful awareness.

From the platform of conscious awareness, it becomes easier to align your choices with your intentions. Whether you want to eat healthier, exercise regularly, sleep more soundly, eliminate a habit, or improve the quality of a relationship, bringing your awareness to the silent field of consciousness through meditation empowers your desires with one-pointed attention. Meditation reminds you that you have a body and a mind, but that your essential nature is transcendent to both. From this perspective you can make better choices to support your physical and emotional well-being.

The guiding principle of Ayurveda and the other Eastern healing arts is the interconnection of all things. We aren't simply an isolated collection of atoms and molecules, but are an inseparable part of the infinite field of intelligence. From this perspective, the world we see 'out there' is our creation. Wars, violence, economic disparities are the consequence of human choices - and so are love, harmony, and prosperity. As parents, our major responsibility is to nurture our children in body, mind, and spirit. In the words of the poet Carl Sandburg, "A baby is God's opinion that life should go on."