Finding Your Balance
Life can be hectic and unpredictable. Sometimes, there's just not enough time in the day to do all the things that need to get done, let alone take care of ourselves. This is when we start stressing, sacrificing sleep and our own personal needs for other more "important" tasks.
Every once in a while it's healthy (and important) to stop what you're doing and remind yourself that balance requires attention too. Living life from one extreme to the next will inevitably lead to burnout which can negatively affect your performance on multiple fronts. It's important to strike a balance.
Settle into your chair. Close your eyes, loosen up and breathe deeply for a moment before taking a couple of minutes to read this piece for a bit of inspiration. Try out the ideas in this article to help you get back in control of your life.
Getting In Touch With Your Natural Rhythm
Everyone has an internal life clock that gets them going every morning, settles them at night, and provides them with satisfaction as they move through their day. This isn't just something we believe in our minds, it's something that's encoded deep within us; it's the way our body functions are set up so we can live perfectly well without it.
Your internal life clock is the thing that makes you feel like you can accomplish something before your day is over, but it's not going to push you out of bed at 4 AM if your body needs more sleep. It's not going to force you to cake all the food in sight if your body actually wants to eat healthfully. Learning how to listen to it and use it properly will help naturally balance out your life.
As children, we are unaware (most of the time) of our internal clock and when we don't get what we want right away, a temper tantrum ensues until we do. As adults, it's a lot less obvious that we aren't in sync with ourselves. As people who have lived within a certain culture or environment for a long time, our bodies are so used to the patterns of what is and what isn't normal that we don't even realize they're there.
Think of your internal body clock as the "normal" part of your personality, the default setting that you believe should operate all the time. When you let it go and pay attention to it, however, you will find that your thoughts are slowing down. You'll be able to think things through more carefully and slowly.
Listening to Your Body and Its Needs
Everyone has different needs which are unique to them as individuals. The important thing to remember is that these needs are always changing. Your body may require a lot of sleep one day and very little the next. It will also require different amounts of food or activity depending on where you are in your life, what season it is and other things. Your needs will change based on your lifestyle so it's important to be consciously aware of them.
It's easy to find out what you need by paying attention to your body. When you do this, you'll notice how it feels when everything is balanced out and how it feels when something has tipped too far to one side or another – this helps you figure out how to balance out your life each day as well as long term.
The best way to pay attention to your needs is to start a daily journal where you write down what you ate, what you did and how you feel. You can also do this with your sleeping habits, your activity levels and other things that impact your body. The more detailed you are about this, the more accurate it will be.
By tracking these things each day, you'll get a good idea of what patterns exist in order to identify when things are out of balance and why they're happening. This way, when one side or another is out of whack (as they will inevitably be at some point) you'll know how to correct it.
Conclusion
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Finding Your Balance