What do you feel when you hear… ‘How do you balance it all?’ Me? I get the hives!
Many of you know I work from home but always have my hands in a few different projects at any given time. I love spending time with my friends and family, enjoy my life at home – with one daughter out on her own and one at home, along with a busy life with a loving and hard working husband and a few well cared for cats. Yeah, I’ve got a full life just like you.
But, ‘balance’ is not my favorite go-to word.
I resonate so much more with ‘harmony’.
‘Balance’ is one of those buzz words from the 80’s when it was all about acquiring, doing, and having more. Women, especially felt it. It has a tipping of the scale feel where if one thing is up and managed, something else must be down. We know that no two or more things can be easily, equally managed. (I’m a coach, I know these things..that’s why we’re all tired!) wink.
So…something’s gotta give.
I admit, I loved the phrase ‘balance it all’! I tried. I failed. I learned. Those who tried to balance it all eventually started to feel they were always letting someone or something down, and many times, they allowed it to be themselves. They held everything and everyone else up…and, well, we know where that can lead.
So, maintaining ‘balance’ just doesn’t make sense or really even work.
It is a highly counterintuitive concept.
We can never really progress forward, enjoy the now, or live in ease when in the midst of striving for balance. Whereas, ‘Harmony‘ is that natural rhythm when everything is working together, in sync, at any given time. ‘Harmony’ is a support system concept more so than a teeter totter concept.
When I feel overwhelm, I know my trine – my mind, body and spirit are in disharmony. I might also notice I suddenly seek out my feel-good detour behaviors or get cranky too easily. Those are my signals to…
…stop, feel & take Intuitive Inventory.
I will not think about the shoulds, woulds or coulds…I just feel ‘what is’. I’ll notice where the flow turned topsy-turvy….I’ll see where I’m overdoing & under-being, and mismanaging. I will keep what is truly mine and release what is not to the rightful owners.
You can take Intuitive Inventory right now. Take a minute to feel out your life this very minute (no thinking allowed). Allow the images of the people, places and things in your daily life to bubble up and appear. You may sense a restrictive, unbalanced feeling around some of it or you will feel an openness around all of it. If you feel restrictive, suddenly feel guilty, or tired, you may have too much on your plate and you may be striving to balance things that are not even yours, but you said yes. You, too, can return what is not yours to their rightful owners.
So do it..It is your privilege and responsibility to take care of your trine and allow others to take care of theirs.
There is a time for everything we could possibly want and desire. We are still loving, friendly and sincere people even if we have to decline and invitation now and then.
Having it all or balancing it all doesn’t have to come at once. And, it doesn’t mean forever ~
Strive for Harmony instead ~ It is found in maintaining the ‘now’.
Love,
Susan
