It's a season of balancing. Socially, friends are having many conversations about upcoming winter gatherings – will we reprise from last year the warm coats and hot chocolate around the fire pit, or will we feel comfortable and safe enough to gather inside? Culturally, what's a healthy cost-benefit ratio of social media engagement? Scientifically and medically, how do we get a relentless virus under control while still finding ways to live safely in community? And politically, the heavy swing of the pendulum in Virginia is punctuated by hot debates on Capitol Hill about how thick and sturdy our social safety net should be.

Yoga practice itself will not answer these questions, but it will help us learn to balance intuition and information, desire and discipline, compassion and reason. As we hone our skills to stand on one foot, to stretch for strength, to exhale at least as much as we inhale, we can keep our eyes and ears open for ways to live in balance during a time that seems anything but steady.