How to Balance Life for Your Greater Well Being

We live in crazy times.  Pandemics, financial crisis’s, job stresses and the list goes on.  Each day that comes along requires balance.  Your greater well being is something that you can work at every day.

Nutritionists suggest you incorporate fresh vegetables, fruits and protein to ensure your body is getting the essential nutrients on a daily basis.

This strategy can also be applied to other areas in your life. For instance, are you paying proper attention to the mental, spiritual, physical, emotional, social and financial areas in your life?

Is your focus disproportionately distributed?

Neglecting an Essential Area

It could well be the case that you are neglecting an essential area in your life without realizing it. Then again you could be deliberately avoiding certain things in your life which, deep down, you know need improvement.

Sometimes this is down to fear, or lack of motivation, or sometimes it’s just poor self-esteem.

You’ve no doubt encountered people who try to compensate for this by making flat statements like, “I can’t cook” or “I don’t know anything about computers” or “my wife/husband handles the accounts.”

If you catch yourself thinking something like this – stop. It’s very defeatist to say you can’t do something, and doubly foolish to say you can’t do something you’ve never actually tried.

The Essential Areas of Well Being

It is vital that you evaluate your life on a regular basis as there are six essential areas to consider; the mental, spiritual, physical, emotional, social and financial.

Just as in the case of diet and nutrition, if you neglect one area the entire system suffers. Even if you are eating healthily, unless you are getting all the vital nutrients, the entire system will begin to break down.

The Plant and Pet Metaphor

Imagine certain areas in your life like plants and other areas like your pets. The plant areas need a little nurturing to become healthy, while the pet areas need significantly more nurturing to be healthy.

When the leaves of the plant start to turn brown and sag, intuitively you will begin to nurture the plant. The same strategy applies to your pet. If your pet suddenly becomes needy he will start to nag you, and you will focus your complete attention on your pet.

This process is what takes place internally as well. If you don’t look to grow financially, bills begin to accumulate. If you don’t consume healthy foods, drink plenty of water or get the exercise your body begins to break down.

If your mental status is not developing, you will become stagnant. If your spiritual life is at crossroads, you will feel an emptiness inside. If your social life is going nowhere, you will start to feel isolated and lonely.

If you let your emotional life hang dry, you will start to feel out of control. Just like the leaves of the plant turning brown and saggy there are early warning signs that the overall system is slowly disintegrating.

Do you take heed and start to nurture these vital areas or do you continue to place excessive attention on one area instead?

How to Balance the Essentials

You must realize that it is not required to invest large portions of time in all areas. But each area must receive some investment on a daily basis.

Becoming more aware of these areas will make it easier to invest time in them. Ask yourself, what goal would suit this area in my life? Then set a specific and clear goal.

This is something you can act on without making any excuse. Even in this super busy life of ours, there are always long periods of waiting. Instead of reading a silly magazine in a waiting room, or cursing your fellow motorists in a traffic jam.

Why not take the time out to focus on an important area of your life you know you’ve been neglecting.

Not Living Up to Potential

The reason people don’t live up to their full potential is that they have fallen into a pattern of low return on investment. Once you fall into a single pattern, you tend to stay stuck for a long time.

Many people neglect vital areas but come up with excuses as to why they do it. In other words, they become obsessed with the one plant, while the other five planets are all withering around them.

Free Yourself from Negativity

Liberating yourself from negativity must be a priority. Of course whilst you may desire to become a more positive person it can often be difficult to prevent negative thoughts from creeping into your mind.

So how do you begin to free yourself from negativity? The good news is that you’ve already taken the first step by choosing to liberate yourself from negative thinking.

You must recognize that you have negative thoughts and learn how to control them. Negativity is an acquired habit.

It is unhealthy because it imbeds itself and keeps generating more and more negative thoughts. Negativity begins with one thought and continues to another thought.

Before you know it you have a chain of negative thoughts taking over your whole life.

When a negative thought appears, turn your thoughts around to something positive. Have a firm affirmation of the positive. For instance, you may constantly feel negative about your job.

The next time a negative thought pops into your mind, affirm the positive such as “I’m grateful to have a job”. Have several positive affirmations ready to apply in case of negative thoughts.

Celebrating Milestones

You may set goals to advance the key essential areas in your life. The dilemma you frequently deal with is how to remain motivated until you reach your goals.

You must surround yourself with a strong support system. Otherwise, long periods of time will only blur the vision of your goal. You must inject self-discipline to ensure your goal is met eventually.

There are bound to be several obstacles along the way. But if you keep reinforcing the value of your goal and remain motivated, the joy of achieving the goal will keep you on the correct track.

How to Celebrate Milestones?

Milestones must be celebrated every day. Certain milestones such as getting bigger income or weight loss may become discouraging as it takes longer than you expect.

Also, often you will reach these milestones but go back a few steps in the process. For instance, you may lose a few pounds and then gain it all back. When this happens the progress towards reaching the milestone becomes discouraging and gloomy.

When celebrating milestones the sustained efforts must be celebrated. It is your effort that will lead you to the goal. Select a reward to celebrate sustained efforts.

For instance, you can make a wish list and include ideas and friends who have been supportive of your goals.

The reward must motivate you more than the interest you. The reward must be not something you sacrifice for your goal. And you must only reward yourself if you move forward to meet your milestone.