We can learn to create balance in our lives in various ways. We know that often the symptoms we are experiencing, such as depression, anxiety, or anger, can be in part to areas of our lives being out of balance. This is not the only factor, but it is often a piece of the puzzle. Wellness and healing commonly begin with gathering these pieces. Things being out of balance contribute to adverse outcomes.
One way we can practice creating balance in our lives is to begin meeting our own needs:
Physical
Spiritual
Emotional or
Intellectual needs
We may decide to work on three areas at a time and begin to check in during each day and decide, “What will meet my physical need today? What will meet my spiritual need today? What will meet my emotional need today?” Remember that there are no wrong answers to these questions as long as they are healthy choices.
You may decide that your physical need for Monday is to go for a walk. On Tuesday, you may decide that your physical need is to go to bed early, and on Wednesday, your physical need may be to drink more water. You do not have to complicate this process over. They can be simple responses.
Again, on Monday, you may choose meditation to meet your spiritual need, and on Tuesday, you may decide that uplifting music will meet your spiritual need. On Wednesday, you may select a religious practice to meet your spiritual need.
I do like to make a few recommendations for meeting emotional needs. Some of my favorites are scribbling, dump lists, color dump lists, journaling, and affirmations. You can select any of those links to learn more about those tools and practices.
Above are the practices and ideas for creating balance in our daily lives. More important, though, is the undercurrent of this work. Be very aware of the fact that if you get organized and say, “My physical need is going to be, go for a walk,” you can autopilot through this work and miss the point entirely. You can check boxes, go for a walk every day, and be completely disconnected from yourself and your actual needs.
For example, on Monday, when you pause, connect back to yourself to ask, “What is my physical need today,” your body may say, “Go for a walk,” but on Tuesday, when you check in, your need for the day, your body may say, “Go take a nap,” but you got organized and said the physical need was walk, so you go for your walk when your actual need was to go take a nap, and we missed the point entirely. This, in my opinion, is the most valuable part of this work; to pause, connect back to yourself and your needs, ask what your need in that area is, listen, and then behave accordingly. Be so mindful not to miss this part of this tool to create balance.