Most people don’t understand the connection between health, happiness, and work. If you constantly struggle with work/life balance, here’s how busy (but successful) people manage it, and what you can learn from them.
Consider The Fact That You Do Too Much
It seems impossible to think that we’ve burdened ourselves with too much work, or even too much pay. But, maybe your activities are overwhelming you. When you’re committed to things like school plays for your kids, PTA meetings, work, homework, glee club, and a million other things, when do you have time to just sit and stare at the sky for a moment?
Most people are at least a little afraid to be alone with their thoughts. They don’t know how to introspect. But, more importantly, they don’t want to. This creates stress — stress that won’t go away.
Maybe what you need to do is reduce the number of things you have to do, and free up your time. When everything (or mostly everything) is optional, you don’t have to worry about not doing something.
Consider What’s Right With You
Until you die, there’s more right with you than wrong. Every day, you need to stop, and take a moment to appreciate all the wonderful things in life that you have. Your health is something truly amazing. Think about it. If you’re willing to spend at least a little time taking care of your body, it rewards you with energy and vitality.
If you’re not taking care of your teeth, use CarefreeDENTAL.com to help you with that. If you’re not eating right, pick up an extra bag of veggies and fruit next time you go grocery shopping (and actually eat them this time). If you’re not working out, start by taking a 30 minute walk in the morning — every morning. Work your way up to lifting weights.
Love Yourself Unconditionally
If everyone else in your life leaves you, you’re “stuck” with yourself. You can’t get rid of yourself. So, why bother telling yourself a bunch of negative thoughts and ideas. Even if you do happen to be doing something wrong, don’t beat yourself up over it. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t acknowledge it. You should.
Let’s say, for example, you’re 40 pounds overweight. You could say, “I’m fat and lazy,” which might be true. However, you can finish that thought, “I’m fat and lazy, but I am going for a walk to day and I’m cutting calories out of my next meal.”
This does two things. First, you acknowledge and own your faults and things you don’t like about yourself. Second, you make a commitment to change those things.
Loving yourself doesn’t mean you accept the way things are right now. Sometimes, the way things are are not good. So, change them. Unless you stop breathing, you always have that choice.
Live In The Moment
People often get caught up in what they will do tomorrow or next week. What about today? You can’t live for tomorrow all the time. You do need to spend time thinking about what you will accomplish with your life immediately, right now.
If you can take a moment and live consciously — live in the moment, then you’ll do more for your mental health than most self-help or professional therapy sessions. That’s because living in the moment, and living consciously, requires the actual act of focusing on what you’re doing. You must focus on the state of your thoughts, and of your actions, and take more control over them. You’re not allowed to live “automatically.” That act of conscious thought is your self-help.
When The Tough Gets Going, Don’t Take It Personally
It’s easy to think that the world, or even the universe is against you. It isn’t. People have bad days, and sometimes bad years. When faced with a job loss, a foreclosure, or a death in the family, think about ways in which you can use this as a learning experience.
While death is never pleasant, what can it teach you about living your own life? If you’ve lost your job, it can be financially devastating, but what can you learn from it? Do you have savings to cover 6 months of expenses? If not, this is what you can learn, even if the job loss wasn’t your fault.
Being financially prepared for anything in life is a valuable lesson.
Finally, put the “being” back in “human being.” Live your life in a way that doesn’t make you a victim. Own problems and circumstances, and remember, the world isn’t out to get you. Reality exists. It just is. That’s it. You have to figure out how to make it work for you. And, when you can’t, learn to roll with the punches so you can get back up and try again. That’s what being human means.
Louise Walters is a Mom who likes her family to lead a healthy lifestyle. She enjoys yoga, trying out new recipes, and helping others to live a healthy lifestyle. See her articles around the web on lifestyle, Mom and alternative health blogs.
I really like this article. It is true that we need to learn to take care of ourselves, love ourselves, and remember that we have a choice as to how we live our lives
My husband tells me I take things too personal sometimes. I think feeling overwhelmed has a lot to do with it.
Balance is the key to everything. If you sacrifice family for “success” what’s the point? If you allow yourself to be stagnant, what’s the point? It’s all about a little of everything.
Great, great post. Balance is key to happiness, success, and love. If you don’t have balance, everything falls apart.
I do overburden myself. I have a threshold of activity, and when I let something go, I inevitably fill it with something else. So frustrating!
I do my best to stay balanced by being organized. I have a list for my daily things, and I tell myself that its not the end of the world if I don’t get to everything. I always remember that time with my kids is more important that cleaning the kitchen right then and there. There are things that can wait. Prioritizing helps a lot.
We all could really benefit from loving ourselves a little bit more each day. I am trying to live more in the moment myself. It isn’t always easy, but little by little, it does make my days happier.
Yes, often I don’t stop to just live in the moment because I am worried about whats to come. I need to remember to stop and enjoy more often.
I always appreciate your insight so much. I needed to work on separating out the ego and not taking things personally when life doesn’t seem to be working out. Thanks for this.
These are some really good things to consider. I’m definitely the kind of person that forgets to live in the moment.
Some great tips and great ideas. Putting yourself first is so important, something that easy to forget in the rush of everyday life.
Life’s all about learning and balance, even if we want to think we can control everything. This is an excellent reminder to take a deep breath and put everything into perspective every now and then.
It’s true that we can get so caught up in the day to day activities that we forget to actually enjoy the day.
There are times when it’s harder to find balance than others. Finding that balance can take work.
I was a workaholic once because I want to succeed in my career, but I realize that in order to succeed you also need to have a well-balanced life. Life’s success is not just doing our jobs, but to do other things as well, things that are meaningful and brings joy in our life.
Wonderful things to consider. I often find it very hard to balance but I find that if I really try to focus, balance is something that helps a ton especially when it comes to my blogging work.
I tend to take things personally. This is a great reminder to live in the moment.
These are all great tips. I definitely do too much but it’s hard to stop.
I don’t know why it’s so hard to take care of ourselves but it seems to be! I love all of your ideas.
These tips are all overlooked and I am sometimes guilty of it. This post is a special reminder for everyone especially when it comes to “living the moment” because this is how each minute becomes positive in the first place!
These are some good eye opening advice we all need to acknowledge more often. I think a lot of us stress out so much it does affect our quality of life so we should be more positive as much as we can.
I know I do too much. As a mom, wife, employee, friend, daughter and all around superwoman I don’t take enough time for me.
I try to focus on each day. It can be so easy to get caught up in your daily routine that you forget to take time for yourself. It is important to recharge your batteries.
I love this article! I think one of the most important things we can do as wives and mothers is to take care of ourselves.
What a great post. It’s so true you have to keep going and stay positive. Lots of positive here.