Andrea Thiel Connell

Beating Stress While Creating A New Balance

Life is crazy busy. It can be a real juggling act just trying to keep things floating along relatively smoothly but sometimes it’s impossible! Sometimes it seems that no matter how you try to plan and try to stay organized there’s just no way and before you know it you’re chasing your tail, burning the candle from both ends, and feeling defeated before you even got out of the gate. That balance beam you are usually walking on suddenly turned into a high wire act without a safety net. Suddenly you find yourself in a situation that is possibly dangerous, probably not worth it, and definitely stressful. Stress is the greatest side effect of trying to maintain balance in our hectic lives. Stress is the major cause of illness, breakdowns, and ultimate failure in our lives today.

The problem though, is this; people don’t understand balance and don’t value harmony enough in our modern-day life. There are 3 main obstacles to achieving balance.

* Trying to please too many other people; Learn to say ‘no’. It’s nice to receive recognition from others but once we start this game of looking after others’ needs we will soon find that praise doesn’t cover it when we are sadly falling behind in our own duties and chores and struggling to catch up. Find the value for yourself in all that you do before you do it or just say no.
  * Prioritizing; letting the tail wag the dog. Running around putting out fires, dealing with the wrong things first, letting others determine what needs to be done in a day will leave you exhausted before you even get started. Make a list of 6 things that you must achieve in a day, start at the top and plow through them until they are finished. You will realize a sense of personal accomplishment and feel stronger to take on the other tasks that are of less priority but are important to your sense of well-being. Take charge of your life and learn to be the dog wagging his tail.
* Not honoring personal need requirements; relinquishing down time, i.e. naps, meditations, massages, etc. Somehow we have learned as a culture that it is too selfish to look after your needs first. You are the center of your universe, which does not mean that if you sit down for 5 minutes your world will collapse. It means that you get to choose to take care of you too.

When we don’t keep these three things in perspective we can lose sight of our selves and our health very quickly. When we become exhausted we work less efficiently, less effectively, we lose our good humor, we become pessimistic, and eventually, gradually start causing pain and discomfort in our lives. Health, wealth and happiness suffer in a life without balance.

Taking Back Control
To become empowered in our own lives we must establish ourselves as being worthy of self-care, we need to accept ourselves as being as important as everyone else and we need to learn to honor our own feel good requirements as imperative to our well-being. As you become stronger in looking after your needs better, you will find your stress levels going down, time expanding and life becoming more enjoyable.

To find balance and establish harmony give your self permission to weigh each demand on your time and energy by asking yourself these 4 simple questions;

i) Will this make a positive difference to my life or someone I care a great deal about?

ii) Will this simplify my day or complicate my day?

iii) Will this add to my happiness or to my stress level?

iv) Will this add to the overall quality of my life today?

I challenge you to keep it simple. Refrain from over complicating your life with a lot of ‘yeah but’s’. Stop falling for the excuses that keep you away from experiencing peace of mind, balance and harmony. Decide right now to have a great day!