The Meaning Of Balance

Given that this is a website dedicated to inspiring women to take a balanced approach to health and fitness – I find myself thinking about the concept of balance quite a bit.

Many people are led to believe that it’s impossible to find balance because there just isn’t enough time in the day or energy in the body. It simply feels impossible to balance all that life throws at us on a given day or week.

Take, for example, one of my clients. She is a young working mom with 2 kids, a husband, a full-time job and a nonprofit on the side. On top of these commitments she want to maintain old friendships, build new friendships, keep a clean house, keep her style up to date, do Pilates, train for a half-marathon, cook wholesome meals, garden, read, volunteer at school, go to church, do crafts with her children, find time to relax, etc..the list could go on. She wants to find balance but it simply feels impossible.

Somewhere along the way, for my client and for many others, the idea of balance becomes mistakenly synonymous with “doing it all”.

Balance is often mis-understood as making all things equal and giving equal weight to all things.

According to the dictionary, balance is defined as: : a means of judging or deciding : a counterbalancing weight, force, or influence : mental and emotional steadiness.

Finding balance does not come from giving equal parts to all things. Unless of course, you decide that you want to just give a little tiny, exhausted bit of yourself to everything and never do anything with real, commitment, zest and intention.

I’m here to tell you, whether you like it or not, you cannot do it all. And if you disagree and think you can, then I would argue that you cannot do it all WELL. 

Living a balanced life means determining what is most important to you and expending your time and energy accordingly.

Our society is busy and over-commited. Busy-ness is celebrated and encouraged as if it makes us more worthy and important. But I believe in order to find balance we have to avoid the trap of thinking that more things, more commitments, more everything is always better. We have to decide what it is that matters most to us and what is deserving of our time, energy, and even money, and then arrange our lives accordingly.

Once we determine what it is that we want MORE of in our life, then we also have to commit to giving LESS to other areas. And that’s okay. Yes, you read that right, it is okay to do less!

Finding balance comes from giving time and energy to the things that build you up and give you life. And likewise, eliminating the things that bring you down and stress you out.

For example, when it comes to fitness, if you feel like you SHOULD train for half-marathon because that’s what other people do, it’s time to give it up! You don’t have to run a race to be healthy! You can officially let it go! Isn’t that freeing? The same goes for any other activity you feel like you SHOULD be doing to be a better human. You no longer need to carry around the burden of guilt from all the things you feel like you SHOULD be doing.

So, I encourage you today, as you dive into another busy week full of to-do’s, commitments, and high hopes, take a moment to list out what is most important to you in your life. Keep the list short – no more than 8 – and attempt to spend your time and energy doing things that fall within those categories.

Balance will not look the same for everyone. Finding YOUR unique life balance will simplify your life in a way that brings freedom and peace of mind.