You strive for more balance in life.
Your Life is busy. There's always a lengthy list of competing demands on time and energy. It can seem like a daily struggle to find and maintain balance. And just when you feel like you’ve found balance...it's gone. Fleeting. Elusive. That pesky little sucker.
I think of my own life. I'm balancing my marriage, our kids, my business & clients, my own self care, our house, laundry, meals, personal & professional growth, my list goes on. Often I catch myself wondering if I am good enough and I know I am not alone. I hear this inner chatter reflected back from countless clients, colleagues, family and friends.
There's an art in maintaining balance. The art lies in developing and maintaining awareness of when we are off balance; this awareness, of when we are out of balance, allows us to make adjustments to bring us back into balance.
Balance is not static.
I think for example of a practicing a handstand. While a perfectly poised handstand seems so solid and strong, the gymnast is artfully tuning in to each little shift and responding accordingly, hollowing their core, driving through the shoulders, pointing the toes, playing with the back and forth fine tuning of maintaining their balance in their hands, ever so slightly back and forth between the palm and the fingers.
Balance begins within.
To bring about harmony, reconciliation, and healing within, we have to understand ourselves. Looking and listening deeply, surveying our territory, is the beginning of love meditation.
--Thich Nhat Hanh, Teachings on Love
A practice of self compassion, begins with deep listening and curiosity and doesn’t leave room for the chatter and fear that you aren't good enough. You hear that chatter but are not stuck in the muddy muck of your mind. You notice your worries and fears but do not feel paralyzed by them. Awareness becomes your greatest teacher.
Balance is the art of awareness and response.
When you look for others to value, affirm and admire you -- instead of looking within yourself, admiring yourself, finding your own value and affirmations -- balance often will continue to elude you. When you start looking for balance within yourself, you'll soon experience more of it outside yourself and within your relationships too!
I’d love to hear how this resonates for you and how you apply (or plan to) a practice of self compassion to bring you back into balance, join the discussion in the comments below!
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