Finding Balance in our lives (Part 1)
Are you balanced?
Gymnastics and dance are beautiful sports and require a great deal of balance–but that’s not the type of balance I’m referring to.
There are many aspects of our lives that factor into whether our health is balanced or not. When looking at our overall well-being, our physical, mental, emotional, vocational, and spiritual health all factor into the total picture. What happens if one of those aspects is not functioning at our optimum level?
We may get “out of balance”!
Recently, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to facilitate a Leadership Training for some dedicated and hard-working young university faculty that are destined for leadership roles. This past week I shared some tips for maintaining balance in our daily lives. When we get out of balance, increased stress can be the result.
Got stress? Don’t we all?
We can’t avoid stress–it’s part of life. But…we do need to learn to manage our stress appropriately. So how do we do that?
- Recognize that stress is a part of our lives.
- We cannot eliminate it (nor should we try), but we can learn to better deal with it.
- Set priorities for the tasks we must accomplish (and remember that you and your family are high on the priority list).
- Consider making a list of your stressors–keeping in mind that some stress is good–maintaining our responsibilities, going to school or work, being a good parent, etc. are activities which all include a certain amount of stress.
- Examine what we can control—life-style choices are an example
Let’s talk about a few of these. If you are out of balance, perhaps it is due to stress.
Or…if you are stressed, it may be because you are out of balance.
It’s sort of like the chicken and the egg–which came first?
Perhaps we can agree that stress and balance (or lack of balance) are very much related.
Think about your job, your obligations, your family, and other factors in your life. Are there some aspects that just feel overwhelming? Perhaps it’s a real challenge just to complete all the tasks on your “to do” list. Clearly there are many things that we cannot control.
We will all experience stress at some point in our lives.
Can you complete a little homework this week? (No extra stress, I hope!)
First, make a short list of what tasks, issues, or situations that cause you to be stressed.
Separate into what you can control and what you cannot.
What?
Are you thinking, “If could control what causes me stress, then I would change those things and NOT HAVE STRESS!”
Well, let’s consider that. As I mentioned earlier, some tasks inherently are related to stress. If we are a parent or grandparent, we take that responsibility very seriously. But, not everything goes perfectly–there will be times when our children, our spouses, our co-workers, or other situations will create stress in our lives.
Examples!
How about when your sweet six year old remembers at 9:00 p.m. that she volunteered you to provide refreshments the following day for the first grade class end of the year celebration?
Or, your co-worker is late completing a task which causes delays in a project due to your supervisor. You get chastised for being late.
Or, your spouse or significant other forgets to pay a bill and you get slammed with a significant late fee.
These are not uncommon occurrences and can cause . . . STRESS! You can likely think of lots more examples!
Next week, we’ll review some strategies for coping with stress and for maintaining balance in your life. We’ll talk about the impact of life-style choices. This week, if possible, take a few minutes to examine the things in your life which cause stress or affect your ability to maintain a healthy balance in your life.