Balanced.

In my current state of life, the common theme has been balance.

Balance at work.
Balance at home.
Balance with friends.
Balance with activities.
Balance with diet.
Balance with fitness.

I am out of balance.
I've taken on too much. I've given too much to certain people. I've not done enough.
I am out of balance.

And I was thinking about that. I was thinking about how overwhelmed I am. I was thinking that the teeter-tatter was very one sided. And it depended on the subject to what side was up and what side was down.

Then the most miraculous thing happened. I finally had a breakthrough to let the recovery begin.

I was at yoga one Monday night and my instructor (and good friend, little Miss Anna!) ended our practice by saying -- What can you take away from this practice of balance that you can move into your every day life? (Or something to that affect, I don't remember verbatim).
And it got me thinking, in yoga, to stay balanced, you have to use all your muscles.
My favorite right now (and the one pose I'm working towards mastering) is crow pose.

In crow pose, you balance on your arms. But if you use only your arms, you fall over.
You have to have the proper eye alignment, you have to hold your abs, you have to engage your legs, back, and even feet. Or, you fall over.

In my life, I wasn't using balance. I wasn't engaging all parts of my life to move from day to day.
I was thinking:
Monday, yoga.
Tuesday, date night.
Wednesday, Verve.
Thursday, Connect.
Friday, clean up my house.
Saturday, editing, bills, scheduling.
Sunday, sleep.
And that's just the extra things. And all these extra things come with their own set of responsibilities, planning, and action. And when I tried to divide each one into it's own certain day, I fell over.

Then, that one precious night at yoga got me thinking about how I can use the different parts of my life to work together. To feed off of each other. How can my Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday set me up for a great second half of the week? How can my Saturday, Sunday, set me up for a fruitful Monday?

First, I think that comes from delegation. Delegating certain tasks to certain people. Not trying to do it all by myself. That's why I'm on TEAMS, because other people want to help, and are capable of helping. I need to be able to look at something and see it for what it is. Not get attached, not get emotional about it. Other people can help. And I need to have faith in them.
Second, I think it comes from letting out what needs to be said. I do a good job of talking, but I also do a great job of bottling things up. I let is swirl around in my head until the "perfect time" before I say it. And, SURPRISE, there is no perfect time. So it never gets said. And I just think about it. I just let it eat away at me. And it makes me more emotional, and more resentful, and I tend to eat a lot more and sleep a lot less.
Thirdly, I think I need to go with the flow. I need to be able to say yes when it's good and no when it's not. If someone asks to go out and have fun, I need to not immediately turn to my calendar to see if I have the time. I need to just go do it. And enjoy life. But I also need to know that I can't stay out til midnight every day and expect to be worth anything at work. I need to know that I can say yes, I'll do something every evening during the week and think I can cram all of my personal stuff into the weekend, when I'm so tired all I want to do is relax.
Lastly, I need to be aware of what will benefit me and what will harm me. Emotional eating = hurt. Cake pops at the department meeting = beneficial. Losing sleep to workout = hurt. Running by the lake = beneficial. This last one is especially true in my food and exercise world. Because I'm very much an emotional eater and very much a lazy person. I need to find the balance between making my body feel good and just stuffing it full of hamburgers and beer.

I'm in no way perfect at this. As a matter of fact, I'd say I'm making about 5% headway on these action plans. But I have created such a hole that 5% is really good.

5% means I'm so much farther from where I started.
5% means I've started.

Where can you find more balance in your life?
How can you learn to use all your muscles in your life?

I'm sure everyone has a different answer.
But I'm going to try to improve on these four things this summer.

<3XOT