The Paradox of Living a Balanced Life

When we think of balance what often comes to mind is this idea of even distribution, or the concept of bringing different elements into the correct proportions in order to create stability. What I am coming to realize, however, is that balance is much more complex than this. To really understand what balance is and how you can incorporate it into your life, you must be willing to uncover the many layers that make it up. Contrary to what you may believe, living a balanced life requires a whole lot of IMBALANCE.

Life is multifaceted and there are various areas to focus on when trying to foster equilibrium and bring harmony into your life. Some of the key areas that play a role include our career, health, relationships, spirituality, social life, home environment, physical activity, education, finances, and creativity. By taking a big-picture view, you can begin to assess each of these aspects for yourself and determine your level of satisfaction within each category.

For most of us, time is our biggest enemy. While we all have the same 24 hours in a day, each one of us must make daily decisions about how we wish to spend our TIME and ENERGY. Having a high level of satisfaction in every category is simply unrealistic, yet, this is the still the standard we all are constantly striving for. The sooner we can accept and welcome the imbalances of life, the sooner we can create health, happiness and joy into our own life.

I have always been someone who not only forms high expectations but holds myself to them day in and day out, and when I come up short or miss the mark I am left with feelings of disappointment and failure. For most of my life, my view on balance has been skewed, thinking that I needed to have everything in order, making and distributing my time among all these aspects of life. By trying to squeeze everything in and attempting to bring it all into “balance,” I actually felt more out of balance and burnt out.

Now, at the beginning of each week, I choose one or two areas to focus on and set an intention surrounding them. This week my focus was on my relationships, and my intention was to spend more time with both my family and close friends. Actively taking the time to decide where I direct my attention is much more manageable than trying to fit everything into the short windows of free time that I do have available. Yes, this method depends on making compromises in other areas and a sense of give and take, however, I have found it allows me to bring more energy to what activities I do choose to invest my time into.

Learning to be comfortable with the imbalances that arise can change the entire dynamic of your life…IF you let it. The key to understanding balance is to acknowledge that your satisfaction levels with each dimension will fluctuate and change from week to week, and it is actually this ebb and flow that provides a sense of balance, allowing you to become more agile, flexible and adaptable in a wide range of situations that may come your way.

Xx,

Leah Kutsch

P.S. Keeping IIN Touch