LIFE-BALANCE

Life can be hectic. We all have things that demand our attention: responsibilities, relationships, personal interests, and activities. We have things that must be done to maintain our lifestyle, - our responsibilities to our work, our schools, and our families. When our lives become difficult or extremely busy, and much of our attention is directed toward a particular issue or project, we can often find ourselves off balance. We begin to focus on the things that we think we must do. We have been conditioned to neglect the things that bring us joy and bring meaning and purpose to our lives, like spending time with family and friends and, taking time to rest and relax.  We discover this connection by looking inward and beginning to listen more closely to what our bodies are telling us. We can begin by learning to put ourselves back into our lives.

Living a busy, stressful life has a plethora of negative impacts on the body. The body will communicate it’s suffering until we pay attention. This may include such symptoms as stress, anxiety, sleeplessness, body aches and muscle stiffness, injuries, illness and dis-ease. The body is resilient and as long as we pay attention and translate the language of our body, we can intentionally promote healing.

Life-Balance is about developing a balance of the things that are essential to our basic needs and those things that bring meaning and fulfillment to our lives. 

Unexpected obligations can derail our best-laid plans. A big part of balance is prioritizing which demands on our time are important and which ones can wait--and why. Setting boundaries allows us to take time out for ourselves and still do the things that are important. Creating this balance leads to greater life satisfaction and well-being. 

What does balance look like?

Life-Balance is unique to each individual - what may be life-balance for some may be stressful or boring for others. For example, some people may value a lot of down time to relax, while others value staying active or busy. Some people may value more connectedness, while others may value more alone time. 

Let's work to make life-balance a priority.