Balance: Attainable or Barely?

“Balance” is one of those terms you hear all the time: balanced diet, balanced exercise, work-home balance, etc.  I find this word super easy to say, and yet the concept to be difficult to handle.  Achieving balance for me is easy: I notice what is off-kilter in my life, make an action plan, and then act.  And for a few weeks, all is well balanced and running so smoothly; it’s wonderful.

 

And then my husband has a surprise field exercise for a week, the dogs get sick, other commitments creep into my life, and then before I can even realize it, I am off balance…again.  Does anyone else find themselves in a similar cycle?  

 

The good news about this whole finding/regaining balance issue is that we are all human and this is just part of life as a human.  When you are struggling to find your balance, take heart in that!  Balance is something that is attainable, but that will ebb and flow with the calm or chaos of life.  It is meant to be gotten, lost, re-assessed, and achieved once more.  When your balance is lost for the moment, take five seconds to take five deep breaths and remind yourself that 1.) this too shall pass, 2.) things will not stay in this current situation forever, and 3.) you found your balance before, so you will do it again.  Trust and believe in yourself to embrace the chaos and straighten it out in time.  Sometimes the more we fight or dwell on something, the longer it will take us to achieve the desired effect.  Acknowledge the craziness and then trust that you will find calm once again.

 

What are some tips and tricks you use to get back your balance?

I've Been Bamboozled

I admit it: I have officially been bamboozled.  In case you weren’t exactly aware, being bamboozled is a state of mind and an emotional concoction of awe, shock, frustration, and sadness.  You might recognize the feeling of bamboozlement when your favorite TV show leaves you on a cliffhanger and makes you wait a whole year or when something similar happens when you read a book, only to find that it is a series, and you must wait for the next installment.  Bamboozled.

 

I was bamboozled on Sunday; I was finishing Book 6 of the Outlander series (A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon) and then it happened: two secondary characters that I love dearly betrayed the star Outlander couple of Jamie and Claire and therefore betrayed me as well.  I closed the book and sat there, utterly bamboozled.  Still not over this treachery, I complain to my mom the next morning still feeling the bamboozlement and she told me “Well, that’s the sign of a good book and a good author, right?  The fact that she can make you feel this way and so deeply, over fictional characters, is really impressive”.  She’s right (as per usual via the Mother Handbook), and this got me thinking about this feeling of bamboozlement and what it meant.

 

Being the Type A and super introspective person that I am, when something doesn’t go the way I want it, or I get thrown for a loop, I think about it and chew on it until I can handle whatever chaos was just thrown at me.  I process my thoughts and feelings so much that it could almost be a hindrance in some cases.  Yet, when I am bamboozled by a book, I just let myself stay in that state, and somehow, I manage to put it past me.  It is almost as if I accept the feeling, embrace the feeling, and then simply move past it.  So, what would happen if I embraced the bamboozlement of life?  What if instead of vigorously trying to handle/manage/control everything that life throws at me, I embrace feeling bamboozled?  As “embrace” is my word for the New Year, maybe I should give it a try and not be afraid of getting bamboozled; what would happen if I just felt it?  I have always been of the mind to face things and fix them; but what if I faced them and felt them first?  Face it, feel it, fix it.  Stay tuned for more on bamboozlement!

 

Have you ever felt bamboozled by a TV show, book, or life?  How do you feel it?

New Year New You?

To be completely honest, I’m not one for New Year’s Resolutions; I used to be though.  I would make a list that would have 3-5 items I wanted to change or accomplish in the new year ahead.  For a while it was fine, it was working, but the problem I have (and probably many others) is that the year is long, life is chaotic, and my ambitious self in January with 5 resolutions becomes a bit bogged down.  Then somewhere around August, I realized I haven’t been putting forth as much of an effort, and then the guilt sets in.  Does this loop sound familiar at all?

 

I decided about two years ago that it was time to break this loop of New Year’s resolutions and the “new year new me” mindset that seems to be ever-growing in popularity.  I decided to shorten my list to one item: a word.  That’s right, I would choose a word that I wanted to incorporate into my life more or bring more awareness to.  Last year I chose the word “guilt” because I tend to hold myself to crazy standards and feel guilty if I let someone down, take a rest day, read instead of walking my dogs, sleep in, eat a piece of cake, not being able to volunteer at an event, etc.…you name it, I feel guilt over it.  By choosing this word, it brought more awareness to my thoughts and feelings surrounding that emotion.  

 

Realistically I could choose “guilt” as my word every year (I am a work in progress myself!), but I don’t because that doesn’t send a very nice message to your inner self, does it?  This year my word is “embrace”.  I choose to embrace the challenges, the good things, the work, the stress and own it.  It is easy to get annoyed, angry, bummed, and frustrated when there is another hoop to jump through, another task to complete, yet one more edit to make; but my goal is to not stay mired in those emotions, and instead embrace those challenges and own them.  Personally, I tend to exert a lot of energy and effort in frustration when things don’t go the way I want them the first time, but this year, I want to put some of that energy into embracing whatever challenge/obstacle it may be.  

 

So, this year, I choose to embrace life: the good, the bad, the ugly, the funny, the stressful, and the sweet and see where it takes me. 

 

Happy New Year my friends!

 

Does anyone else choose a word for the year?