Jun 13 2009
Going in Five Directions at Once: How Do You Find Balance in Your Life?
As a Baby Boomer trying to juggle a hundred things at once, there are days when I feel like I am running in circles, one concentric circle around another, and another. From the outside it might look as if I am accomplishing a great deal. But it’s not true.
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When you get to the middle of your life — midlife, everything seems to start coming at you all at once. Your children are growing up and it’s time to pay for college. Your parents are getting older, and it’s time to think of them in a new way—with an eye to how you might best care for them if they need help. And then there’s the job you were counting on to last till your retirement — it is no longer satisfying and as far as money is concerned — it seems it will never grow to a level where you can feel comfortable.
How do you find balance in your life once you’ve hit the middle of your life?
Life is constantly changing and shifting, and balance can only be realized by delibrately seeking it. The simplest way to find that moment of balance is to simply stop what you are doing. Just stop. Step back from the reality you are in and take a deep breath. (Don’t worry. The world will continue for a minute or two without you.) Then close your eyes and just breathe. As you take that deep breath, listen to the sounds around you. It doesn’t matter where you are: sitting on a park bench, standing in a grocery aisle with a push cart in your hands. Just listen for half a minute — 30 seconds. Focus your attention on the now moment in which you are living. Become aware that this stillness in the chaos of your day is a moment of balance you can savor. Just be there and appreciate the fact you are alive and well, and able to just be still. Let your shoulders drop and whatever weight you are carrying slide away for just a moment. Take another deep breath, acknowledge the possibility that life in all its complexity is essentially good — that even the chaos has value and life has a way of working itself out. One more breath, open your eyes, and continue on with whatever you were doing.
It takes a deliberate choice to create these moments of balance in your life but short as they are, moments like this can be very helpful in keeping your life from feeling as if its spinning out of control.
There are many good resources on the internet that you might find helpful in seeking balance in your life. Here are just a few.
• Women and Balance
• Mind Tools
• Center for Balanced Living
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