‘Poise’, the word enamoured me once. A person described as ‘poised’ was greatly admired by me. ‘She carried herself with poise and elegance,’ or ‘She was incredibly poised for a girl her age,’  and I would immediately admire and envy that imagined person. For, poise is a perfect balance. Poise is when we carry ourselves with grace no matter what. Poise is when we never have those silly outbursts and embarrassing moments. And poise is something we strive to achieve all our life.

For me, poise is not just graceful composure, it is an expression of the internal balance or maturity that we may have achieved. Not until we make peace with our internal demons, not until we accept the fact that not everything will go our way and things sometimes may go horribly wrong, can we carry ourselves with poise. Naturally, words like grace, elegance and dignity are associated with poise.

In real life, poise is not something we encounter every day, but when we do it’s beautiful. Smiling in the face of abuse and moving away, telling the other person gently that he is wrong and sometimes just maintaining a dignified silence. No poise doesn’t mean we let others walk over us, poise is making a point without being shrill and loud or stooping low. Poise is when we realize sometimes silence says more than a thousand words.

Is it possible to be poised all the time? Is it even desirable? I think not. Poise is a fine balance. The art of knowing when we should maintain poise and when we should actually express what we really feel!