Tips to attain a balanced life

The writer is a neuro-transformational coach

Take a few long deep breaths and open your senses. How do you feel overall - on top of things or a bit submerged? Do you feel centred or a bit wobbly? Do you sometimes feel you are neglecting various important parts of your life while spending valuable time on areas which make you feel bad, sad or guilty?

Here are four signs you may feel out of balance:

1. Your “to do” list grows longer each day, yet you are only really doing the necessary. You aren’t enhancing parts of your life, you are simply keeping up.

2. You are busy being busy. You have so much to do and you are always rushing around, yet not much is being done. You are good at making excuses.

3. You feel burned out. You’re constantly tired, have headaches or other physical and emotional signs of stress.

4. You feel like you are living by someone else’s schedule and have lost direction. Often, our spouses, children, work govern our time and it can pull us in many directions.

In order to feel better and more in control, prioritising your own needs and focusing on yourself will bring you balance.

Our lives are made up of many elements including, but not confined to: family, friends, body (health, fitness and well-being), self (emotions and personal growth), money, work and enjoyment. When each element gets an equal amount of attention, there is an overall feeling of certitude and triumph. A balanced life is where you have a handle on all the various areas, whereby none are pulling you too hard in one direction, away from the others.

Here are four tips to attain more balance:

1. Acknowledge and accept that you are where you are, right now. Start improving from today. Compare yourself to no-one else but who you will be a year from now.

2. Manage yourself, not time. At the end of our wonderful existence, we all want to look back on our lives with pride. Always stick to your word. This will make you a more proactive, honourable and reliable person – to others and yourself.

3. Delete what depletes you and enhance what energises you. Subtract all that is not in alignment with your overall happiness, so if it does not serve you, release it. Add people and things in your life which bring you joy, peace, security, honesty and love.

4. Set boundaries and spend time on yourself. To hold the empowering stance of always being at choice and saying ‘no’ is a critical piece to reducing stress in your life.

When you are able to achieve equilibrium, a feeling of calm, groundedness and motivation will ensue. Be cognizant of the signs your life may be out of balance and take the right steps to regain control. This will create harmony in all areas and there will be an overall feeling of everything in flow.