Balance is one of the most important things we can investigate in life. We are not talking about the ability to stand on one leg here, though that does it have its uses.
We are talking about living a life that is balanced in the way that means ‘we have covered all of our bases’, as living, breathing spiritual beings.
Technically, we can equate balance with proportioning appropriate time to all the areas of our lives, be it our minds, our emotions, our bodies and our spirit.
Many people spend 10 to 14 hours a day working and the rest of that time sleeping, which leaves little time for all the other components that make up the person.Holism, is a term used to describe the “whole,” encompassing and covering all the parts and elements that make up one person, so instead of seeing a human being in parts, holism views the being as one whole, where each part is essential in the balance of that whole. If one part is out of place, or not in balance, it effects the whole and prevents it from functioning properly.
Road to Balance
Balance is something that eludes so many of us, as often we get stuck in the day to day rush, of work, family, financial responsibilities and there just does not seem to be enough time in the day to do all we have to do, not to mention all the things we may want to do.
Prioritizing is a skill that can elude many, but it is an essential part of finding balance. In reality, if you think about it, how many times did you find the time, even though it may have seemed impossible to do something you wanted to do?
As the old saying goes, “where there is a will, there is a way.”
There are other roadblocks to finding balance, one of which is a simple lack of awareness. Perhaps, you have never thought about how balanced or unbalanced your life really is?
Perhaps you do not even know what balance really is, and the important benefits it has to your overall wellbeing
Physical, Mental & Spiritual Balance
We obviously possess physical bodies. We obviously have mental functions and capacities. We are obviously here, aware of our life, but not just our life, we are aware of all the life that there is around us.
We are here, and that is obvious to anyone with a slight shred of awareness. With regards to our own human lives though we can sometimes experience great anguish and great frustration or even great confusion and depression, at the same time we can experience great and overwhelming joy and happiness, or intense excitement even to the point of becoming oblivious of ourselves and where we are.
In order for us to find balance in all of this, we need to learn to inquire into our inner selves and the ways in which we spend our time living our lives.
Covering All The Bases
Balance is all about wellness and true wellness can only occur when all of our areas of existence are supported, encouraged, cared for, and well-tended to.
Think about it like a garden.
Let’s say you have three different plants in your garden. Each one you care for each day, you carefully feed them the water they need, you move them around into the sunlight to get just the right amount, you choose carefully which nutrient-feeds you buy for each one so that they get all the goodness required to grown into strong healthy plants.
This is your garden.
What do you think would happen to one of those plants or two of them even if you only paid attention to one? It’s obvious isn’t it?
The other plant or plants would shrivel and die. This is what happens when our lives are out of balance. Someone who is living in this way would regularly have emotional outbursts, or fits of deep depression, or possibly even psychosis, these things are all major examples.
At the same time, someone could just be really confused about what they want, or they could even be really unfit and unwell physically due to the same imbalance.
Some of you will fully understand this, while others may need to learn more and to understand why their life is not so great right now to be able to recognize and encourage this more often.
To do this we have to cover all the bases
How To Develop Balance
Balance can be achieved by developing balance in three key areas of self. If you want to improve your life, this will help you as we cover all the physical, mental, and spiritual elements of your whole self.
The Physical Body
Everything that the physical body needs, it is your job to keep a watchful eye on and make sure that it gets. This includes its level of physical exercise, diet, hygiene, and warmth. It is your job to cover all the bases of the physical body and its domain.
It is amazing how much junk humans put inside their bodies and how little care or attention we give to them.
There are fundamental things the body needs, including, nutrition and exercise, but as we have come to see as a result of the top causes of death stemming from lifestyle choices, we are not doing a good job of providing for these essentials.
When your body is weak, out of shape and not thriving, it will affect all facets of your life, and ultimately will destroy the balance that is so important to overall wellbeing.
Beyond just worrying about future diagnoses of disease or premature death from heart disease or cancer as a result of poor diet, lack of exercise and bad habits, it maybe more important to think about today and the here and the now.
Consider This…
How much energy do you have?
Do you get through your day with a spring in your step, or are you dragging around wishing for bed time and dreading each task?
Are you overweight?
Do you eat junk that weighs you down?
Are you out of breath and struggling when you simply have to walk from a far off parking spot at the mall?
Do struggle to bend over to tie your shoes or reach for something in a high cabinet?
Do you lack the energy to play with your kids after work?
Do you spend the weekend and any off time on the couch watching TV?
Are you thriving or just surviving?
Your physical body is the vessel that takes you through your day, when it’s weak, so are you, and this greatly impacts the state of your wellbeing, day-today quality of life and the balance you need to thrive.
The Mind
In this case, when we talk about the mind we are talking about your mental state, your thoughts, your feelings, and emotions.
Positivity
It is 100% possible to encourage positive thoughts, states, feelings, and emotions in your mind.
You can learn to control your thoughts and influence yourself in a positive way by investigating such mental disciplines as meditation and self-hypnosis.
Do this, often.
Positivity is associated to greater happiness, reduced stress, and better management of stress, and yes even a prolonged life span.
Your overall emotional state has a great impact on your physical body and overall health, a phenomenon referred to as the “mind/body connection.”
Negativity, including pessimism, hostility, stress, and anger induce real physical symptoms, including, accelerated heart rate, stomach pains and headaches.
Prolonged negativity can have a very negative impact on your physical health and happiness with an increased risk for chronic disease, and immunity, and the prolonged state of stress and its consequent response in the body that is associated with negativity can shorten your life span.
Several studies have shown optimism to decrease risk for heart attack and increase life span.
A Copenhagen City Heart Study investigated levels of stress in its subjects, and the men with the highest stress levels had 32% greater risk of death than subjects who had lower levels of stress, and the younger age subjects who experienced high levels of stress were 2.5 times more likely to develop heart disease.
The Women’s Health Initiative found similar results when it followed almost 100,000 postmenopausal women for more than eight years. Researchers measured optimism levels in these women with a questionnaire, and those subjects with the highest levels of optimism enjoyed a 14% lower risk of premature death by any cause and a 9% reduced risk for death from a heart attack.
In general, pessimistic thinking can really have a negative impact on your everyday life, and overall physical health.
Take the time to learn to be more positive. This is very possible and greatly encouraged to improve your quality of life and wellbeing.
3 Ways To Become More Positive
Acceptance – Accept and confront the fact that you are pessimist; this is something you can do on a daily or even a minute-by-minute basis. Awareness and acceptance of any problem is the first step to beginning the road to recovery.
Find a better way – Start to look at the stressors in your life in a different way. One of the greatest differences between optimists and pessimists is that the later sees the glass as half empty. In reality, there is a silver lining in almost every situation, the key is being able to identify it and appreciate it.
Find Role Models – One of the best ways to become a more positive person is to seek positive role models. Positivity is a learned skill, and real life examples that you can emulate are key.
Always take the time to talk with a positive person in order to get a positive view of any situation, and in time you will learn the ability to do the same, and it will become engrained and be your autopilot reaction. This can be a friend, or a family member. A qualified therapist can teach you the art of positive thinking and also get at the root of your negativity.
If you want to develop greater balance in your life you need to learn to control your thoughts to the point where you understand how to influence yourself positively and investigate the areas of life that develop that balance, without the restriction of harboring negativity in your mind.
Emotional Wellness
Taking care of your emotional health is just as important as any of the other elements that make up your whole self. So many of us simply do not consider our emotional health nor take the steps to ensure that it is at its optimal best.
Consider your relationships; are they happy and supportive towards your wellbeing? If not, then likely your emotional health is suffering as well.
Do you own your feelings, understand them, and vocalize them? When we stuff feelings, they fester and begin to affect our wellness, physical health, and quality of life.
True wellness and happiness cannot be achieved without owning and understanding our feelings and expressing them appropriately whenever possible.
Spirituality
Investigate yourself. Really. You are here, as an aware living breathing being. To develop greater balance spiritually you absolutely must begin to inquire into yourself. Moreover, this does not just cover your physical body, but it covers all of life.
How did life get here?
What happened at the birth of the universe?
What happens when we die?
Who am I really?
These are all questions you should be asking yourself.
For those of you who think it isn’t possible to answer these questions, quite simply, you are wrong.
Mystics, monks, and sages throughout the entire span of human history have investigated these questions and have come to fully understand them through the process of Spiritual Enlightenment, by investigating Spiritual Discipline.
Keep in mind that spirituality does not necessarily mean religion…
It can be as simple as feeling connected to the universe, nature and receiving a sense of calm and peace that comes from such a connection.
It can mean knowing who you really are, and taking the time to find out if you don’t. Who you are is really at the core of your existence, relationships, and happiness. ‘
Most people have no idea who they really are, which is a shame as this can be one of the greatest times in your life that includes discovery, learning and growing.
Bring It All Together
Throughrial and error, you must learn how to develop a daily, weekly, and monthly regimen whereby you cover all the bases.
You give yourself exactly what you need at each step of the way for your physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing.
If you can do this, you will thrive towards developing greater balance in all areas of your life, not just physically or mentally but most importantly spiritually too.
This overall wellness will not only improve your quality of life, but also make it a life truly worth living!
