Asymmetry Is the Equilibrium

When I first heard the statement “Asymmetry is the equilibrium,” it confused me.How can imbalance be balance? How can something unequal feel right? During a session, appa used a simple yet powerful example — the unequal length of our legs. He said, “If both your legs were exactly equal, you wouldn’t be able to walk.”

And in that moment, something clicked.

I realized that it’s the slight asymmetry that creates movement. The difference in length allows the body to shift, to find rhythm, to move forward. If everything were equal, consistent, and perfectly aligned, there would be no motion — just stillness.

That single example held a mirror to life itself.

For so long, I’ve tried to make things “even.” I wanted perfection — in effort, emotion, relationships, and outcomes. I thought that was peace. I thought equilibrium meant everything had to be steady and fair and in balance.

But the truth is, life doesn’t move in straight lines. It flows through contrasts — highs and lows, pauses and rushes, wins and losses. Every “imbalance” we experience is what propels us into growth.

If everything was consistent, how would we move forward? How would we evolve, stretch, and discover new ways of being?

The more I sat with this realization, the more I began to see asymmetry everywhere — in teams, in learning, in people, even in myself.

No two people have the same strengths. In every group, some are doers, some are thinkers, some are connectors. Earlier, I used to think that this unevenness created inefficiency. Now I see it as design. The differences in people are what make collaboration meaningful.

Similarly, in my own life, the unevenness between my skills, my emotions — it’s all a part of the natural rhythm of growth. When I try to make everything uniform, I lose the motion that helps me move ahead.

Balance, I’ve come to understand, is not sameness.

It’s harmony within difference.

It’s the ability to stay centred, not because everything is equal, but because I’ve learned to flow with the unequal. Asymmetry doesn’t mean chaos. It means movement.It means life is alive. Else the ECG line would be flat.

Now, when things feel uneven — when one part of my life feels heavier, or progress in one area is slower than another — I try to remind myself: this is not failure, this is rhythm. This is life walking.

It’s the unequal step that propels the next one forward.

And maybe that’s what equilibrium really is — not stillness, but movement that comes from embracing imperfection.

Because when we accept asymmetry as natural, peace doesn’t come from fixing the imbalance — it comes from flowing with it.

Asymmetry is not the opposite of balance.

It is balance — in motion.