What does it mean to have a balanced life…exactly the right combination of this and that? We might think “I need more balance in my life”…but what does that mean? I think in general what we are acknowledging when we feel out of balance is that we have too much doing and not enough being in our life.
We do a lot every day. There is after all, so much to be done…as a student, a parent, a spouse, a partner, an employee, a boss, a manager, a volunteer. There are so many to take care of…children, elders, patients, parents, friends…whole populations of people in need. It takes a village to get it done…even just a little bit of it. ‘Git ‘er done!’ is our battle cry!
It feels good to accomplish…to put forth the effort and reach a goal…and it is important. But what about balance? How do we balance all of our doing with some being? I think being is about the consciousness awareness we bring to life. It is the opposite of ‘automatic pilot’. Too much of our doing is in this mode. In all of our doing… we barely think, we hardly notice what’s around us and we rarely pause. Our entire focus is outside of our self. We pay little, if any, attention to what we are bringing to life…from the inside.
To feel more balanced we don’t necessarily need to carve out time to get away or wait until we can schedule some downtime. Doing and being are not separate. We can feel more balanced in our life…even in the midst of all of our doing…if we shift from ‘auto pilot’ to ‘conscious pilot’. This shift means that we drop into our heart…where we can make a choice to come from gentleness and possibility…where we can decide how we want to be…where we notice our own feelings…where we see a wider view of life.
Pause, breathe, look around, drop inside to your heart…make the shift and see what happens.
Peace always
Paula
