[captionpix width=”250″ align=”right” imgalt=”Work Life Balance” imgsrc=”http://www.abcsimpleas.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/gold-scales.jpg” captiontext=”A Balanced Life”]
What has life balance come to mean in society , in particular we hear time and again about worklife balance, and how important this is to ensure we live a healthy well-balanced life.
But what does it mean for you? I think of it like a pendulum, one week may be mad busy with social events, the next has more of a work emphasis, staying late at the office, orders to fulfill, and maybe it’s more about having balance over time?
I think we know when something needs adjusting and no-one gets under the wire, most of us have or have had challenges in our lives. But it’s not the challenges is it, so much as how we deal with them!
A Simple Fix
And how we deal with life’s challenges mostly stems from a mixture of nurture, nature and life experience. We’re influenced by others throughout life, which can only be a good thing, especially once we realise what works for us, the best influences come from those we respect, teach or learn from.
We instinctively know when we’re with the right people because:
- It’s like you’ve known them all your life
- They speak the same language
- We have things in common
- They can say things to us we wouldn’t tolerate from those outside our circle of influence
But at the same time it’s vital we listen to our own instincts or what you hear people refer to as the heart these days.
Work Stress
People are all too often so wrapped up in the daily grind, especially in the areas where they feel they have the least power, and maybe that’s more about survival than anything. If you consider work and the stress that builds in the workplace and what you bring home, it’s no wonder that holiday time sees a lot of people falling ill, when it’s their chance to relax.
META-Medicine gives us a wonderful explanation for this …
Quality Of Work Life
If you work for others and have to fall in with their timetable, this can mean very early starts, or late finishes. It can make demands on your nervous system, having to be on, when you’d so rather be off, off somewhere else doing your own thing with those people you’d rather spend time with.
Of course there’s nothing wrong with a bit of pressure to bring out our best performances, even a bit of good old-fashioned competition, but sometimes we overdo it, and as the western model of life is so inherently fast where people want that vital piece of information yesterday, it becomes all too easy to keep taking on more when you really want to say no.
Worklife Balance
These aspects impose strain and stresses on the physiological and emotional systems, so it’s as well to have some decent strategies in place to help yourself. Of course, one of the things we often do is keep a stiff upper lip, in order to hold it all together for the sake of keeping up appearances.
But how do we keep stress from building in order to develop a healthier life balance?
There are a number of factors and the more we do on a regular (if not daily) basis to reduce stress, the less likely we are to overact to stressful situations or fall ill, which can throw the body into chaos, resulting in disease or worse still a chronic condition that comes and goes.
Life Balance
With this we’re really talking about that old chestnut lifestyle and we can already see the obvious need to take the reigns and cultivate a better balance in our lives so that we’re alert, and ever-ready to experience a better quality, and be more present to enjoy it. The alternative is pretty grim; remaining stuck in a foggy haze, with fewer choices as the body disintegrates through a slow, painful, unhealthy aging process. I for one don’t want to go there.
So if you want to stick around, really experience in your life as the driver, instead of a reluctant, maybe miserable passenger, you might want to consider doing some things differently. Here are a few suggestions to consider:
Meditation
You might want to try some regular meditation, practicing being in silence with yourself is a lovely way of quietening the mind, being still and peaceful and if you haven’t tried it before, it is like anything else it just requires practice. There are lots of programmes out there, I’ve been using one with Bill Harris, it’s just sound and he offers a range of progressive levels if you want to check it out. But I find it equally effective to set a timer and just sit for 20 or 30 minutes once or twice a day.
Daily Diet
Look at what you’re eating, as this has an effect on the whole system in how it optimizes and digests your intake. Often our system is bereft of nutrients, and this has a massive effect of the equilibrium. The body is calmer if it’s able to function properly (instead of being engaged in the uphill battle when we eat lots of high fat, sugar, salt products).
Sleep Patterns
Sleep is an important area, and the time we sleep, because there is a nightly pattern when the body is repairing the organs, when the REM is optimized and affects the quality of sleep. If you’re waking up feeling tired then you need to look at what you can do to improve that.
SMART Goals
Setting some Smart Goals and we’ll look at that again, because we won’t move on with or in our lives unless we set some intention and goal setting is a way of taking conscious-action to have something be different. SMART Goals are:
- S-specific
- M-measurable
- A-attainable
- R-relevant
- T-time bound
Start thinking about what you can do to reduce the stresses in your life and bring you back into a more balanced life through your work life balance, so you can live a longer, healthier life feeling great and enjoying every minute.
You may already have your own strategies, which would be great to hear about, please leave your thoughts on this. Or are you experiencing undue stress and wanting to find the space to even be able to get on board with yourself, to make a difference. Please contact Jane for a chat to explore how these up-to-the-minute change techniques really help to make a difference.
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