The Art of Balance; with Philippe Petit Video Lecture | Confessions of an Outlaw: A Creativity Workshop - Self Help Learning

So of course people see me as a man of balance
and even people inquire where you born with
this fabulous balance. And I grin because
actually to me it’s work. I was not born
with that talent I do not think so. I think
it was a lifetime of working on my balance
that made me acquire the very good one. Also
the surviving feeling that, you know, my balance
saves my life. But I extend that to everything
in life.
As much as we need air and water and food
we have this force of gravity that nails us
to the surface of the Earth and if we stand
on our two back legs as a mammal it’s because
we fought and we conquered the balance. Now
it’s very natural, people walk but actually
walking is an art. I can tell because I perfected
the art of walking on a tightrope for, you
know, almost 50 years now. And I find out
that balance is not only for wirewalkers,
for jugglers. Balance hits you everywhere
and balance in your head is as important as
balance in your limbs. If you are conscious
of that, you know, it sounds silly but if
in the morning when you have breakfast you
don’t slouch but you kind of hold yourself
not only erect, you know, ready to take decision
for the day to come but also perfectly balanced
with the feet parallel, the hands, you know,
parallel as well and eat your breakfast you
will feel there is a little – this little
exercise so to speak is going to input and
mark your entire day. You’re going to feel
better. I mean look at people sitting. Very
rarely you will see their feet parallel. Now
I study martial arts a little bit at some
point and I read a very interesting memoir
from Bruce Lee and Bruce Lee who actually
encompassed all the martial arts to create
his own was saying the human attitude to be
able to spring into any kind of action attacking,
defending, dancing, walking is standing up
erect, you know, at ease with the feet parallel.
Now you look at people around sitting or standing
up. I swear it’s so rare to see somebody
with parallel feet. Now what is that? Well
that is an image of balance of course you
see. So experiment that. Force yourself to
be balanced and then you’ll see. You’ll
feel better.