Are you striking the right balance?

An important element of a happy and healthy life is keeping a healthy balance.

Easier said than done, you might think. And what constitutes a good balance anyway? Well it's likely to be different for each of us depending upon our individual needs, values and circumstances.

What's important though, is finding the right balance for you. When we don’t have balance in our lives it can lead to conflict, stress, underperformance and even illness. When we do strike the right balance however, we get to experience greater harmony and wellbeing, we feel more energised, we're able to participate more fully and really enjoy the activities we choose to engage in.

The keys to keeping your life in balance are firstly, knowing when you've lost it and secondly, taking steps to regain it. Try this simple exercise to evaluate your own level of balance.

For each pair of statements allocate a score of 10 between the two. For example, if you are feeling particularly fit and healthy you might allocate 9 points to Fit and Healthy, 1 point to Unfit. Of course, there may well be other factors affecting balance in your life so feel free to add those too.

____ Fit and Healthy
____ Unfit

____ Relaxed
____ Stressed

____ Regular Exercise
____ No exercise

____ Healthy diet
____ Junk food

____ Active social life
____ No time for socialising

____ Support network
____ No support network

____ Balanced home life
____ Unbalanced home life

____ Personal needs met
____ Personal needs not met

____ Managing time well
____ Not managing time well

____ Plans for future
____ No plans for future

____ Resources meet demands
____ Demands exceed resources

____ Satisfied with work
____ Dissatisifed with work

____ Other
____ Other

So how did you do? If you seem to have a good balance then Congratulations. If not, then you might want to consider the following questions.

What strikes you most?
What patterns do you notice?
What actions do you need to take?
What are you willing to change?

And remember; "Next to love, balance is the most important thing" JohnWooden
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