Balance. I have talked about
balance on the blog before, but it was a little while ago and honestly looking
back at the post now, I don’t feel that it’s as informative as I’d like it to
be. And so I thought I’d take another crack at it. I received some really positive
responses from my self care post last week (thank you so much!), and so I thought I’d try to tackle
balance in more of an in depth, useful manner. Because really, what is this
blog doing if it’s not giving you something useful?
I think that this guide on balance
follows on nicely from my self care post as the two, I feel, are closely
linked. I hope that each of them will allow you to feel more empowered towards enhancing
and taking control of your own health and wellbeing, something I am keen for
this space to promote.
WHAT IS BALANCE?
Well, in the context of this
post, I’m referring to balance being more of an equilibrium of your daily
activities and demands, rather than being able to balance on one leg or on your
hands (although wouldn’t being able to handstand with ease be an absolute
joy?).
I think, like I discussed with
self care, it’s hard to put a concrete definition to balance as it’s such an
individual concept. What constitutes balance for one person, might be complete
imbalance for another. And although time use and daily activities are important
considerations for balance, it’s also important to consider individual values
and attitudes alongside the socio-cultural environment as these too will influence balance and
perception of balance.
When doing a little further reading for this post, I came across an article that discussed
balance being more akin to being centred with a stable base rather than the
traditional analogy of a scale. I like this way of looking at balance as life
is generally not about balancing out two separate things, it’s a dynamic
process and usually consists of far more than that. The disturbance of a stable
base can be far less severe than that of a scale and can allow you opportunity
to decide what to ride out and take some instability for, whether it be for
good or bad, and what to let go of.
WHY IS BALANCE IMPORTANT?
Balance, in my opinion, is very
closely linked with self care. In fact, I believe that being mindful of balance
in your daily life is indeed one large act of self care. Although hard to fully
define, in it’s essence it’s about creating some stability and equilibrium in
what you do and why you do it in order to enhance your overall wellbeing.
I’m sure we’ve all had periods of
time where we have felt that we’re doing too much of one thing and not enough
of something else. Be it working extra hours, or being unemployed and having a
lack of productive tasks to focus on, or not feeling that you have enough time
to pursue your leisure interests because of other commitments. Or even, as I
discussed in my self care post, being so bogged down in the daily grind that
you lack opportunity to take care of you.
IS BALANCE EVEN ACHIEVABLE?
Balance itself could be viewed as
an idealistic concept. One that we strive for but very rarely reach due to ever
changing factors. And even if we do reach it, it may only be for a fleeting
moment.
What I feel is important is
taking what you do and trying to align it with your values, beliefs, attitudes,
resources and socio-cultural environment. This is where, I believe, a true
sense of wellbeing will come into play, through the alignment of action and
values. Because there will be things in life that you don’t have control over, that
are non-negotiable time commitments, such as work or looking after
family/children. It might be easy to allow these non-negotiable commitments to
flip you into a state of total imbalance, unless they align with your values
and with your beliefs and allow you to live with integrity. Now it might be
that you can’t fully align your actions and values overnight and that this is
something that requires a little work, development and consideration.
While striving for a more
balanced life can be important and helpful in promoting overall wellbeing and
ensuring that you are taking opportunity to care for yourself, it’s also
important to be flexible in your approach in order to ensure that the act of
striving for balance doesn’t take over and prevent you from enjoying the
moment.
Remember the stable base analogy?
This analogy allows for flexibility, it allows for movement forward, backward,
side to side, up and down. You create your stable base, your balance, by
aligning your actions with your values and then when life throws you a curve
ball, you can take it and adjust your base accordingly.
WHAT CREATES BALANCE/IMBALANCE?
As we’ve discussed, balance is
pretty subjective, changeable and, at times, idealistic. But it allows us,
within reason, to strive towards a life that promotes our wellbeing and allows
us to live with integrity.
So what promotes balance or
throws it off kilter? Well we’ve already discussed about aligning your actions
and activities with your values, for me this is a big one in promoting balance.
I think it is also important to highlight your priorities and the
activities/commitments that are most important to you and your overall
wellbeing. This enables you to make a conscious choice around what you do or
don’t engage in, because doing it all just isn’t sustainable option in the
longer term. Balance isn’t about doing more or trying to squeeze more
activities into your day. It’s about being selective with the time you have,
with what is important to you and what will help to promote your overall wellbeing.
When you think of imbalance, I’m
sure all of us can conjure up an image of what that might entail. For me it’s feeling
like I must stay late after work every day to get everything done, not being able to take part in my
hobbies/leisure time and feeling totally overwhelmed by the housework I’ve let
build up as a result. I think with many circumstances, finding the negative is
always that bit easier than finding the positives, but we can use this to our
advantage when we’re considering what will promote balance in our own lives.
Because if you know what imbalance looks like, then you can clearly see what
you don’t want/need. You can identify
the circumstances in which your actions and values don’t align and how this
might impact on your overall wellbeing.
HOW DO WE WORK TOWARDS IMPROVING BALANCE?
I’ve mentioned throughout this
post that balance is individual and subjective, and so improving balance isn’t
going to be a one size fits all job. But I’ve put together a few tips to help
you on your way.
IDENTIFY YOUR VALUES
First and foremost, I think it’s
important to spend some time reflecting and considering where your values lie
and what is important to you. Consider your current circumstances and
resources, your belief systems, your future goals and expectations and how all
of this links together to create your current values. Also remember that values
can change, and that’s ok. I’ve have a huge shift in my values and beliefs over
the last few years, which has hugely altered my life. There’s also nothing to say
that those values won’t continue to adapt and change in the future as I gain more life
experience and perspective.
TAKE STOCK OF YOUR ACTIONS
Take time to consider the
activities that you participate in throughout the day/week. Consider which of
these are non-negotiable and which are through choice and have the potential to
be flexible. This, alongside your identified values will allow you to start
creating a picture of what balance and imbalance looks like to you and how you
can start to adapt or make any changes needed to work towards this.
SET YOUR INTENTIONS
Once you have a clear idea of
where your values lie and what your daily/weekly activities look like, you can
start to set some intentions around how you want to progress towards a more
balanced lifestyle and work towards aligning your actions with you values. Your
intentions don’t need to be huge, nor do you need to have multiple intentions if
you don’t feel that this would be effective for you at the current time. If
needs be, prioritise one intention and focus on working towards that, gradually
adding further intentions when you feel you have the space to do so.
GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION
Balance is a journey and a
potentially wobbly one at that. Give yourself permission to explore and take
time to find out what balances/imbalances your life and how you might adapt or
change this to align with your values and current circumstances.
REMEMBER: IT’S YOUR JOURNEY
As we’ve touched on throughout
this post, balance is subjective and individual. Try not to let what others are
doing or not doing influence what’s important to you and where you wish to
progress to. It is up to you to create a balance of what is meaningful and
important to YOU!
I hope that you will find this
Pinterest friendly graphic helpful, if you hover over any of the images in my
posts it gives you the option to save it to one of your Pinterest boards so
that you can easily find or reference the post again in the future.
I have really enjoyed pulling a
longer, more informative post together and putting some of my knowledge to good
use. I hope that it’s helpful to have more information together in one place so
that it’s easier to find and allows the post to become more of a guide than a
discussion post.
Let's start a conversation:
I'd love to know how you try to promote balance in your life and how you work towards aligning your actions with your values.
Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, or drop me a tweet @_hellojordan.
This is a really great post - I think I've been a little unbalanced lately - when I have a task to do, everything else in my life seems to go out the window.
ReplyDeletehttp://ohduckydarling.com
Thank you for your kind words Rosa! I hope that it can encourage some thoughts around how you might instil a little more balance to you day xx
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