Wellness Wednesday–Finding balance
Finding balance in in all aspects of our daily living can be a challenge. Like me, most of you probably have a demanding schedule with many responsibilities. A busy life makes the goal of finding balance harder, but when multiple dimensions of our health work together like a well-trained orchestra, we move closer to a life of balance and harmony.
What are Dimensions of Health?
Our health isn’t dependent on just one aspect of life. Physically, our bodies need good food and regular physical activity to be healthy. But if we are under severe emotional stress, isolated socially due to a pandemic, or going through a re-structuring at our place of work, every aspect of our health can be affected. In our daily living, our overall health can be positively or negatively influenced by our environment, circumstances, and our choices.
As I focus on overall well-being, I view these areas as dimensions of our health:
- Physical
- Mental/Intellectual
- Emotional
- Social health
- Vocation
- Spiritual
What occurs within each of these areas of our life has strong impact on our overall health. We’ll go into more detail about each of these later, but for now I just want to remind you that our health is multi-dimensional, with many, many factors impacting our overall health.
Finding Balance and Harmony
The orchestra pictured above didn’t achieve balance, harmony, and the ability to gift us with a beautiful performance overnight. Years of hard work and practice are required. But they did it one step at a time.
So can we–we can achieve a healthier lifestyle–one step at a time.
Wishing you blessings on the journey.
Katherine, last night, my friend and I were just talking about the need for balance due to overflowing plates-and I don’t mean with food! This is timely! Without our health, we will not be able to complete what God has called us to do. Looking forward to achieving harmony and beautiful music:-)
I hope you and your friend can support each other on that wellness journey to balance. Having a support system is so important when we strive to make changes to work toward a healthier lifestyle. Wishing you blessings on the journey, Dawn. God is with you.
As your book pointed out, our health is determined by the connection of all those aspects of life you listed. If even one is out of balance it is like one of those instruments hitting a sour note. The rest of the music suffers. Thanks for sharing your wisdom, Katherine.
Thank you for your encouragement, Barbara. It’s so easy for something to knock our life out of balance, but God will help us get back on the track. Wishing you peace, joy, and blessings, my friend.
Like all of life–one step at a time. Thank you.
Yes! One step at a time–not jumps, leaps, or sprints–a step at a time along our Lord’s path. Thank you for stopping by, Diana.
Great thoughts Ms. Katherine. As I age, I’m finding balance something that is more and more difficult to maintain. Not just the physical, but also emotional. I’m certain I’m not the first retiree to exclaim, “I’m so busy! I don’t know how I ever found time to go to work every day.” Sometimes, my days and weeks get overwhelmed with my commitments to helping others. And when that “one more thing” gets added to my already over-busy day, I start to topple and fall “over the edge.” It’s in those moments that I have to seek God’s help to rebalance my life. Loved this post and these Wellness Wednesday posts ma’am.
I fee your pain, J.D. People always said, “Don’t retire and expect to have time to do anything–you’ll be too busy!” I didn’t believe them, but they were right. It’s been my own fault, though. I keep taking on more things. Balance–I need balance! I’m working on it and I’ll pray for you, my friend. Thank you for the blessing of your encouragement.
Balance requires us to say yes to a few good things and no to others. We too seldom understand ourselves to be stewards of the dimensions you mentioned. Sometimes life pulls us out of balance, and we need to have a storehouse for those times. Great post, Katherine. Much to consider. God bless!
Thank you for sharing your insights and wisdom, Nancy. I agree–we need to have a “storehouse” for those times we fall out of balance. We have that storehouse in our Savior, don’t we? We can only achieve balance in our lives when we have Jesus in our hearts. He’s the foundation of all–Christ the solid rock! Thank you and may God bless you.
I often find that I’m lopsided. Leaning more into one thing than another. My body, mind, and spirit feel the impact of being unbalanced. It reminds me of the time I had foot surgery. Wearing that huge boot from the doctor on one foot caused me to put more stress on my good side. It wasn’t long before it was the good side that ached. Such a good lesson and wise words to follow. Thanks!
I’m lopsided, too, Terri. You shared such a good analogy about the “good side” (foot and leg) beginning to hurt because of the extra stress from your surgery and boot. That’s how we get out of balance–one area may experience a lot of stress (i.e. illness, tragedy, a crisis at home or work, etc.) and everything else gets out of balance. Thank you for sharing and your encouraging words. Wishing you a blessed day!
Thanks Katherine. Balance in different stages of life look so differently, don’t they? In the transition to retirement I’ve found myself quite surprised to find my balance a bit off…in several of the areas you mentioned. I’m interested to see more of what you have to say.
I feel your pain, or rather your unbalance (or is it imbalance?), Sylvia. Retirement has been a challenge for me and I have attempted to remedy the difficulty by taking on more responsibilities to fill the void in my life. That led to additional problems in achieving a balanced lifestyle. I’m working on it as I write this series. Please feel free to share some of the strategies you have found helpful.
Balance is sooo important!!
Oh, yes! And sometimes we don’t recognize how important balance is until we’ve realize we are carrying a huge burden and it is affecting every aspect of our lives. Often, “help” is the hardest word to shout out.
I look forward to reading your book and learning more about adding balance to my life.
Thank you, LuAnn. You sent sunshine (an even brighter sunshine) to my day. I pray Honoring God with My Body blesses and encourages you.