What is life balance? Is balance a state where outer circumstances are settled and in harmony or is balance an internal state? Or is it both...?

What does it mean to you? Balance is defined as "a condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions". This invites us to look at the "larger picture" or whole system, and think holistically about the different interests and life pieces we consider important.

When new elements come into our life, it usually takes a while to regain balance or to put systems in place that will help us juggle the various elements. It might be a challenge for many of us to know what to make a priority and how to navigate around the things that are non-essential.

Life Balance is about

Prioritizing
Building systems
Navigating what is unimportant
Holistic Thinking

Life balance is a strategy, a process, and an ongoing learning experience, and can be considered a choice of attention focus.

Life Balance is challenging because

We have many areas of attention and intention we focus on daily.
Many times unexpected situations or things have to be clarified.
Unconscious habits play a role in how we choose to divide our time.
Our inner critic has a major part in how much we value a certain life segment.

Here are some areas of life balance to pay attention to

Exercise
Leisure
Work
Education
Travel
Family
Friends
Relationship

Frequently we excel at a certain area in our life at the cost of another, and at some point, we notice that there is an imbalance. There may be unhappiness, or the feeling that to much emphasis is placed on a certain life segment, and simply put we will begin to notice that instead of just "zooming in", it is important for us to learn to "zoom out" and look at the greater picture.

When developing life balance, it is important to know that the more you begin making conscious choices, the less you are going to be on "automatic", and this will help create new attention fields.

How can you develop life balance?

Assess your current life in honesty and clarity
Start asking questions inward and give space to newness
Allow a perspective that can embrace multiple life areas
Give yourself time to plan out strategies for balance
Prioritize and let go of non-essentials
Develop accountability tools
Explore what you habitually focus on
Create a system to keep track of your focus areas

Each time you focus on a specific life area, you can explore how you feel about this particular area. Simple goals, broken into small detailed steps will help you stay focused. Additionally, consider learning about your own patterns, and life style vision you have.

Life Balance is in many ways, a recognition of how you work best, and what is necessary for you to thrive and be happy. That will have both personal and universal elements: certain human needs are a necessary part of our life balance, as well as personal individual expression and joy, and these give rise to a very unique life form.