Maintaining a healthy life balance is not only essential for happiness and well-being; but also it can be a tremendous boost to your productivity in your career and fitness journey. A well balanced life is crucial for personal effectiveness, peace of mind and living well.
In everyday fast-paced life there is always someone, or something, to answer to. There are urgent and important things we must do and there are things we like doing.The challenge is to balance what we must do with what we enjoy and choose to do. This is not always easy. If, however, we are unable to reduce stress and manage a well balanced life there can be physical and/or emotional health consequences.
Here are some tips to get back some control and balance in your life. And once you start seeing results you’ll be better equipped to maintain that new found equilibrium. The key is not to try to change everything at once, but to make small adjustments over time to determine what works for you. Eventually, you will have a whole new set of positive life habits and you’ll never look back!
10 Tips for living a well balanced life:
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Take Care Of Yourself– We hear this over and over again. We know what we need to do, but it isn’t a priority until we have a health crisis. You can't accomplish anything if you're unhealthy. Get plenty of rest, exercise and eat properly. Many of us think we can burn the candle at both ends: overwork ourselves, get very little sleep, and still function adequately. You may be able to get away with this for a while when you're young, but eventually, this life style catches up with everyone. Burnout is a real possibility.
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Set Goals in the Different Aspects of Your Life: Set goals that are realistic and attainable in every aspect of your life. Your goals should include your physical health, your mental health, your work and your relationships. When you start to accomplish goals in each of these aspects, you will begin to find balance in your life.
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Minimize toxins– By that we don’t mean chemicals (though that might help too.) Minimize the negative influences around you. Avoid toxic people (complainers, whiners, poor attitudes.) If you can’t completely avoid them, at least minimize contact and tune them out as much as you can. Surround yourself with positive, supportive, can-do people like the rock stars on Team DSDNT :)
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Organize and Prioritize Your Responsibilities: Setting goals will help you discover what is most important to you. Once you know what you want to accomplish, prioritizing your responsibilities becomes easier. Avoid feeling overwhelmed by trying to achieve every goal at once. Focus on what is most valuable to your well-being and key areas of your life
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Make time for yourself– Making time for you is probably the hardest thing to do for the typical overworked and overwhelmed person, but it is crucial for lowering stress, increasing happiness, and encouraging creativity. Some things to try: meditate, write, sketch, go for a walk or simply sit quietly for a few minutes each day and do absolutely nothing (Yes with the TV off and phone put away!).
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Relationships do matter – Set aside quality time with your family and friends. Don’t just sit in front of the television, really connect and pay attention to those you care about. Make a date with your significant other, have coffee with a friend, play a game with a child. Really get to know people around you.
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Treat yourself– Schedule a massage. Have a glass of wine, your favorite coffee or tea. It can be anything, even smallest things count, just treat yourself regularly.
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Explore the world – Take a walk and pay attention to what’s going on around you. Take a new route, visit a new town or try being a tourist in your own. Attend a local performance, play amateur photographer.
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Unplug from Technology -We are so tethered to our devices that it’s hard to believe that just a few years ago, none of this even existed. We had to make eye contact and interact with a human to get anything done. We watched movies and listened to music without being distracted by a phone. We wrote handwritten letters and actually thought about how we felt when communicating with each other. Now, we just rattle off text messages without even thinking about it. Put the phone down and turn off the computer. Give your work brain a rest. Bonus: Spend the extra time actually interacting with your family and friends!
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Remember fun – Laugh, joke, play, find your sense of humor. Nothing makes you feel better as fast as a good old-fashioned belly laugh.
While we can't anticipate and plan for everything in our lives, we can decide how, where and when to concentrate our energies. This may require some critical thinking and problem solving, but in the end it will lead to much less stress and a well balanced life.
