Five Tips to Create Balance

“Freedom without discipline is foolish, discipline without freedom is insanity.” — Ilona Mialik

Balance is bringing things, more specifically you into harmony. It’s not a destination, but a constant journey. Albert Einstein said, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” Unexpected events will show up. Your boss will add a new meeting to your busy schedule. A friend will call you last minute to cancel dinner plans. Learn to adapt to the moment rather than rigidly sticking to plans. Leading a well-balanced life requires you to let go of being in full control. There's no one-size-fits-all strategy for achieving balance. Stressors and obligations are different for everyone, and they also change over the course of an individual's life. Coping will also be different for everyone, and it is important to know which coping skills keep you balanced.

Courage appears to be the main ingredient to continually create balance. The courage to make difficult choices; to exclude other possibilities in order to choose the one that suits you best; to let go of fearing the disapproval or disappointment of others.  Individuals tend to not want to be happy alone, so there is also a balance between helping you and helping others.  While taking the happiness journey, individuals can also assist others with their own happiness journey.  Yet in assisting others along their journey, remember your happiness journey is just as important, and I would debate more important. Since creating balance is constant, it can be difficult to be completely balanced all the time, but when we recognize we have allowed our lives to fall seriously out of balance, we must take courageous action to reestablish it. #BeCourageous #BeKind #Balance

1. Develop a balanced mindset: Balance is not something external; it lies within you. An out-of-balance context can definitely affect you, but training your mind can neutralize part of the noise.
2. Prioritize your activities: Knowing what matters to you is the first step. Finding balance requires saying no to others (their priorities) to say yes to you (your priorities). Let go of unnecessary tasks, and do things that resonate with your priorities.
3. Integrate all aspects of your life: Stop seeing personal, work, and social times as separate compartments. Rather than competing against each other, they should collaborate.
4. Lose balance to find balance: Sometimes you have to lose balance to find it. Be open to taking risks. Try something different. Seek balance in the long-term, which means you may fall of the balance beam of life - GET UP!
5. Be Here Now: The present is the only place we can truly live. We can only truly pay conscious attention to one thing at a time, so turn your notifications off!