Balanced?

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A good question to ask ourselves every once in a while is: How balanced am I right now?
Because by the nature of balance, which is a continuous movement of interaction inside and outside of ourselves, counteracted by that which helps us stay in that balanced space (or regain that balance when we have lost it temporarily) ~ consciously bringing our balance to our awareness can really help us in our day-to-day lives.

There are situations that make us instantly aware that we are unable to maintain our balance, like sudden, unexpected events or even accidents.
On the other hand, all the more often our balance tends to slip away because we get overwhelmed not all at once, but bit by bit, in a way where from one day to the next, we may not even notice a difference... One day we may feel we have a productive, albeit busy life ~ pretty soon we may not know what to do next because the list of things that really need to get done seems endless. At this point, anything happening in our lives is too much to handle, we may find ourselves having difficulty focussing on even the smallest tasks...

It is at this point that the scales have tipped. We are out of balance, and we may not have a clue as to how we got here; how this could have happened to us...

Yet, with 20/20 hindsight it is often easy to pinpoint the telltale signs along the way:
• Being too busy to go and do something fun.
• A suffering social life.
• Placing everybody else's needs before your own.
• Trying to multitask to the point where you start a lot of things, but nothing seems to get finished.
• Not sleeping through the night, or waking up tired.

So when we are wondering how balanced we are right now, the answers to these five questions may point you toward the answer, and also show to what aspect of your balance you may have to pay a little bit of extra attention:
• When was the last time I did something fun?
• Do I have a healthy social life?
• Do I take time to fulfill my own needs and desires?
• Do the things I take on move smoothly from start to finish?
• Do I wake up relaxed and rested in the morning?

As with all questions we ask ourselves ~ it is important to answer them honestly; in other words, it is important to be honest to yourself... For instance, if you would answer: “Yes, I have a healthy social life, I just don’t have time for visiting with friends right now” ~ that actually is an indication that your personal balance has room for improvement. Whether you see it as a problem or not.
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