“When we stand in Balance, we have the awareness, resilience, and flexibility needed to make the world a better place.” – Dr. Val, Stand InBalance
Living a balanced lifestyle is a key component to a peaceful, happy and healthy life. When we’re out of balance, life can seem chaotic, exhausting or out of control. When we’ve found balance, we feel more grounded, calm, comfortable and are able to think with clarity, act with intention and achieve our goals with success.
However, finding and maintaining balance is an ongoing process. Once you’ve found that sweet spot it doesn’t just stay that way without a lot of attention. As life moves on, factors change, new information and experiences are thrown into the mix and balance needs to be found once again, and again, and again. Often, we may not even notice that we’ve been thrown out of balance until we’ve been going that way for some time.
So how do we recognize and keep up with the ever fluctuating quest for balance?
Read on for 10 steps on finding and maintaining BALANCE:
#1: CHECK IN – Checking in with ourselves is an essential step to finding and maintaining balance. So often, we become out of balance without even realizing that we have. Usually, it’s because we’ve forgotten to take the time to pay attention to ourselves and what is really going on with us. In today’s busy world of overstimulation, it’s very easy to get caught up in everything that’s going on around you & miss out on the messages that may be trying to get through from your inner wisdom.
Take time to stop & just check in with yourself. It doesn’t have to be a big deal or take a long time – just a moment or even a breath to remind yourself to reconnect. Ask yourself “How am I doing, really? What am I doing and why am I doing it?” Do this as often as you can as you move throughout your day. Creating this space and opportunity for yourself will allow any signals of imbalance to come through.
#2: NOTICE RESISTANCE – Notice any resistance that may be coming up in response to a situation, event or suggestion. Seemingly unjustified (or even justified) resistance towards something may be a signal of being out of balance. Resistance towards something is an opportunity to reassess yourself in this area. Ask yourself – why are you resisting? It may turn out that this option that you have been avoiding could bring you into better balance.
#3: CONNECT WITH YOUR EMOTIONS – Valuable information lies in our emotions, they are messages about how we are doing and feeling internally. It can be so easy to push and shove our emotions down inside in order to not have them affect our goals on the outside. This type of behavior will pull us off balance and makes it harder to understand our impulses and actions. Listen to and honor your emotions. Give them the time they are due to run their course and allow yourself to feel them. Don’t wallow in them or let them take complete control. Allow yourself to recognize, acknowledge and feel your true emotions and once you have done so continue to move forward with intention, while honoring your true feelings so you can make conscious choices to create a balanced, peaceful state.
#4: TRY SOMETHING NEW – Bringing new energy and trying new things can be very helpful in creating balance. Many of us are “creatures of habit”. We like to do the same things over and over again because they are familiar and comfortable to us. Although there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, getting out of our comfort zone a bit and doing things differently every once in a while can expose us to imbalances we didn’t realize existed and offer us new ways to bring balance back to the old and familiar.
#5: YIN or YANG? Understanding the principles of Yin & Yang is incredibly helpful in demystifying the quest for balance. Yin & Yang are opposing energies that not only make up the world as we know it, but lie within us as well. We carry our own Yin and Yang energies. We naturally tend to lean towards one energy more than the other, but the balance is constantly shifting & changing. Learning about what constitutes these two energies and where you are naturally drawn will give you valuable information and insight into the various aspects that need balancing and their opposites. Click here to learn more.
#6: PRACTICE MINDFULNESS –
Mindfulness is an excellent tool for maintaining balance. When we’re actively being mindful we are consciously paying attention to ourselves and what’s going on around us. We are here, we are present, we are connected. In this state, we are much more able to access our ability to make conscious choices that will contribute to a balanced life. For more on the benefits of mindfulness & some simple steps to practice mindfulness visit www.standinbalance.com/mindfulness.
#7: SET INTENTIONS – Intentions are like a guiding light that can help lead us back to what’s most important to us when we go astray. Setting intentions is a very helpful tool for maintaining balance. Setting the intention to “Check In” with yourself or “Be Mindful” throughout the day is an excellent way to ensure that you are allowing an opportunity to notice & create balance. If you know that there are areas in your life that you tend to shortchange such as “Self Care” or “Adventure”, “Creativity” or “Discipline”, set an intention to bring focus to those areas in which you are lacking to bring yourself into better balance. You can even set an intention simply for “Balance” and see what that brings you. Read more on setting intentions here.
#8: ALLOW – Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. Rather than grasping or holding on to your previous imaginings or expectations, allow what is happening to unfold and make adjustments as necessary. Often times, when we allow more rather than battling for control, wonderful things can happen that we never expected. Allow for new possibilities to arise. Change is a natural occurrence. When we resist change (small or large) we are upsetting the natural flow and disrupting balance. It is important that we continue to allow for life to evolve and for ourselves to evolve with it. When we embrace change we remain in harmony with the natural forward movement of life.
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein
#9: BE PRESENT – Balance can’t happen in the past or the future. Balance is here & now. In order to find balance we must be PRESENT. How do we be present? See steps #1 & #6 for some insight, but also, just notice your thoughts. Are they focused on plans for the future or are you repeating a story over and over that happened in the past. If either of these things are happening, take a moment to let go of thoughts about past & future and connect with what’s happening now.
#10: RECALIBRATE! The most important thing to remember about balance is that it is in constant flux. As we are constantly in forward motion in our lives, balance is always shifting and changing in response to new events. You may find balance, but unless you keep checking in, keep adjusting yourself as necessary, you will fall out of it. And that’s the thing about balance, you can get back into balance just as easily as you got out of balance. You just have to keep working at it, stay awake, stay aware and keep taking the steps you need to maintain your balance. And if you’ve found that your saddle has slipped to one side, take a moment to straighten it out, get back on & ride.
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