A Quick, Clear Approach to Find Balance in Your Life

What does life balance mean to you?

How many times have you thought about having a better balance in life?

Personally, it’s a thought at the beginning of every year, at the end of every yoga class and at the top of my daily objectives [when I’m consistent with my morning routine]. But, what is life balance?

When I work with clients in my office I often encourage them to define terms like this so that it’s meaningful to them, rather than providing a literal, clinical textbook definition of the word. For myself, balance in life is when difficult, conflicting values and/or choices can coexist without creating personal resentment or another unwanted emotional response — the obvious one for many of us is “work-life” balance. We all want that healthy, glamorous perfect 40-hour workweek to exist without it influencing the rest of our life. But what exactly does that rest of that look like? If work was able to coexist with life in a healthy way how would you know?

The Approach:

First I encourage you to define what’s balance to you. That’s right, what’s it mean to you and how would you know you’ve achieved this so call balance.

Next, what might you notice about yourself, that would be different once this balance becomes present. Less stress? What would be in its place? What might there be more of?

The take away — Create a list of 10 things that would let you know you’ve achieved this balance. Observable, measurable indicators — goals. Now commit to just 2–3 goals. Imagine what might be different the rest of today, tomorrow and this week if instead of striving for perfection you simply focused on cultivating these goals as a daily practice. Sometimes small clear steps are more helpful than big jumps create change.

- Jessica Demla, LPC is a psychotherapist working in private practice in Dallas, Texas. www.uptowncounseling.org