Five steps to finding balance

I don’t know about you but sometimes I feel as though I’m being pulled in 100 different directions; it completely throws me off balance.   There are times that we expect too much from ourselves and buy into the world’s view of a balanced life.  The pressures come from everywhere. Be a perfect:  spouse, parent, employee, Christian, sibling, son or daughter, housewife or provider, neighbor, and friend.  To top it off we must add: exercise, eat healthy, dress fashionably, keep up with current events and be involved in the community and in your church.  

In order to complete even 1/3 of these demands we need to add hours to our day and days to our weeks!  It is virtually impossible to do. So we end up living frustrated and unsatisfied with what we perceive to be an unbalanced life.   

All of these can be categorized as trying to find a balance between the physical, the mental, the spiritual and the social/emotional. If we want to achieve some type of balance we have to be realistic with doing what we can with what we have. There cannot be any room for wasting: time, energy and resources on things that are not important. Below I have a list of five things that help me focus when I feel unbalanced. I listed them in order of importance.

   1.      Spiritual- If my spirit is not aligned with God, I most defiantly feel lost.  This includes prayer, reading the bible and other books that feed my spirit, listening to uplifting music, worshiping and watching sermons on TV.  Doing this first, keeps the other things in my life positive.

   2.       Physical – If I’m neither eating right nor getting any type of exercise I’m good to no one.  I walk around like a zombie with no energy.  I feel sluggish; dragging my feet and even my mental state is affected. I’m quicker to get upset, sad, impatient or any other negative attitude. 

   3.       Mental- I try to have a book for fun and a book for personal growth.  Even if it takes me months to read them, I complete them; this keeps me current.  I engage in activities that stimulate my mind. Currently I’m working on my second novel, I’m giving monthly empowerment classes through “reinas” and I’m writing for FGAL blog.  It is crucial for your mental health that you are doing things that you enjoy, that you feel are making a difference, along with all of those other things that MUST be done, like LAUNDRY… UGH LOL

   4.       Emotional- This is where I think about my family, because if mom is happy, everyone is happy.  Therefore, if my spirit is willing and my body is ready, then my emotions will follow suit. 

   5.       Social- Community, church, job, friends, neighbors.  These are the most difficult to balance.   When my kids were younger it was almost impossible to add any of these, so I didn’t even try.  Now that they are older, I’m able to engage in a lot more fellowship than I used to.  Also, I have more time to spend with friends.  This will depend on what stage you are in your life.

Everyone’s list will most likely be different but the most important thing to remember is that we must not over extend ourselves at the cost of our health; be it mental or physical. Nor should we sacrifice our family to impress others with taking on more than we can handle.  If we don’t take care of the temple of the Spirit which is our body, we can be sure that eventually our jobs will replace us, our church will find another volunteer, our friends will find other friends and our neighbors will find other neighbors.  Sadly, our children will be left with no parent and our families without a relative.  That cannot be replaced.

Let’s work towards living a more balanced life; prioritizing what's important over what’s not.