I am the kind of person who goes all in. I do not do things half-way. I enjoy seeing things until the end. This type of focus can be seen as an asset to an employer. It can be a benefit to your partner. It can help in the early years of parenting. However, I have found balance lacking my life. The focus on my dear husband, my dear children, and the work I love, does not always allow me to focus on me. I have started to seek that balance through self-discovery.
If you are struggling with finding that same balance, join me. I have started this journey with three major questions.
What Centers You?
With all the directions we are pulled from the various roles we play in life I find it critical to keep myself grounded and centered. It is important to get back to where we came from. This is where we connect with our core values. When I am conflicted or making a big decision, I am finding that I make the clearest choices when I look at the situation from what matters to me most.
Prayer. Time in nature. Being with family. Those are the three factors that center me the most. I find putting my words together in a payer to share with God encourages me to explain the situation with love and forgiveness. The time in nature reminds me that I am part of something bigger than myself. This often allows me to release the weight of the issue. Being with family reminds me that I have a support system and some of the best cheerleaders.
What Pushes You to Grow?
Growing and learning are critical components of the human experience. My dear grandmother told me the key to staying young is to never stop learning. It does not matter what we are learning. It does not matter which skill we nurture. The point is to push ourselves outside of the comfort zone enough to make room for a better version of ourselves.
Reading. Technology. Writing. These are the three ways I find myself growing. I have accepted that I will not clear my time or my mind long enough to sit and read a book. However, I enjoy audio books while I am driving or doing household chores. I work hard to listen to books from every category. I want to expand my mind. Technology offers and endless environment for learning. It may be a new video game, creating a blog, coding, or another language. Writing is how I process information. I use the writing process to move what I am learning from short-term to long-term memory. I write to organize my thoughts in a way I can create new habits from what I have learned.
What Energizes You?
We all need a purpose. We need our reason. To accomplish our reason, to serve our purpose we need the energy. The type of energy I am referring to is beyond the rest you get at night. These are activities that ignite your soul. These are experiences that make you feel unstoppable. Mixing more of these tasks into your day makes work, fun.
Helping others. Exercise. Talking to a loved one. Each of these activities makes me feel re-energized. My dear grandmother taught me that when you help another person you are also helping yourself. I find joy in knowing that I was able to ease another’s burden. Working out release’s endorphins causing us to feel good after exercise. For me there is also a feeling of doing something good for myself that ignites more energy. Talking to a friend or family member to celebrate, vent, or just connect makes everything seem possible. There is not anything I cannot accomplish with the support of my loved ones.
The journey to finding balance starts with getting to know ourselves. We must understand what feeds and nurtures us to determine the elements we need to be available for to ensure we are grounded, growing, and energized. Standing next to the ocean is the greatest synthesis of this theory. It is where the sand (grounded core) meets the water (source of challenge and growth) under the sun (source of energy).
What Centers You? What Pushes You to Grow? What Energizes You?