A life in the balance
A recent challenge on the South Beach Diet website has led me (yet again) to a realization – I have balance issues 🙂 Trying to balance the many aspects of my life has often driven me to guilt and despair (oddly enough, I also have Meniere’s syndrome, a vestibular disorder which causes physical balance issues – wonder if anyone has done any mind-body research on the correlation?) Anyway, as I’m a master at rationalizing, I’ve come up with a few ways to deal with (notice I did not say “combat”) my tendency to laser-focus on one or two aspect of my life while others live in an attention desert for a while.
Several years ago I read in a book by Stephen Covey (I’m a real fan of his work), the story of his daughter who was lamenting the lack of balance in her life. She had a new baby and everything else was falling by the wayside while she cared for the child and herself. He (master of prioritizing lives that he is) wisely counseled her to just enjoy the baby and take care of herself – balance would return as this stage of her life passes (and all too quickly). Every thing has a season… and a reason.
Right now, I’m spending very little time on the computer, very little time on housework, not too much time reading and no time on my exercise videos – however, I’m spending lots of time outside, riding several horses a day, walking an amazing 10.9 miles yesterday (just in the course of my normal activities) and generally enjoying life to the max. Does the fact that I’m not doing yoga and meditating for a half hour every day, that my wood floors could use a coat of wax, that I still have a load (OK, 3 loads) of laundry to fold and that my writing projects sit gathering dust pop into my consciousness from time to time? You bet, but it’s what I do with that fact that’s really important. I acknowledge it, know that each of these activities’ times will come and let it go. I have learned to evaluate the level of balance in my life over a more generous period of time (such as months, years, decades or even my whole lifetime)rather than an hour, day or week.
Keeping the Meniere’s devil at bay is can be a genuine challenge, but at least I’m finding it easier to believe in my heart that I’m achieving some kind of balance in the rest of my life – and I plan on wringing out the enjoyment from every single moment.
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