Balancing Act

Balancing Act by Stephanie Goddard Davidson

We all hear so much about balancing our lives, our workload, our commitments to ourselves and/or others. But what is "balance" exactly?

Is it making sure each piece of your life is equal, like a pie being sliced into sections? Is it taking 100% and assigning a value to each section based on value? For instance, work gets 50%, kids get 30% and so on? Is it taking the 24 hours we each have in a day and determining what activity gets what amount of time?

I would say none of these definitions make the cut. Your definition of balance is unique, individual and comes from paying attention to the little voices--the little tugs--you receive from your intuition or that little voice inside your head.

When you feel guilty or frustrated or angry or exhausted or any other unpleasant emotion or physical sensation, ask yourself what this message is telling you. Are you meant to get more sleep? Is there a difficult discussion you have been avoiding? Are you staying up to watch Letterman, when you really want to get up early to work out?

Whatever “it” is, the answer is already there. Just relax and let it in. Don't avoid it or smother it with a cocktail or a bag of chips. Each day, each hour, we can make choices----different choices than the ones we made yesterday or five minutes ago. Instead of falling into the cycle of old patterns and moving on autopilot, shake yourself awake, so to speak. Pay attention. Do something RIGHT NOW that gets you closer to feeling calm, relaxed, in control, and, therefore BALANCED.

My definition of balance? I think it might be best described using the metaphor of a gymnast on the balance beam:

Calm, relaxed, in control, focused, confident, positive self-talk, adjusting to the small sways or missteps. Learning from mistakes and practice, practice, practice. Watching more accomplished "gymnasts" as they balance, talking to those who are more experienced on "life’s balance beam", reading about the techniques, trying them out. And finally---falling and getting back up.