Balance

Our Lives in Balance

I am reading a book called Living Your Yoga, by Judith Lasater – and applying it to my day to day and thought I would share some of the highlights:

“Despite my seeming success, something was wrong. I couldn’t seem to juggle my life so that I could not only get everything done, but also get it done well.”

Judith goes on to say that,  “sometimes, I don’t think we stop and recognize that: ‘Life is difficult’” <ah, sigh of relief, now take some weight of your shoulders; liberating>.  Key learning and this certainly resonated with yours truly: we sometimes make our life ‘more’ difficult.  She goes onto to say that,  “for many years, I spent my days with a series of ‘have-to’s’ and the discipline to get everything done. People always commented on how well I was organized – my attachment to this drove me to work constantly.

It was all about getting things done.” Sound familiar?

Although life is difficult, personally, I too, realized that I didn’t have to approach life by becoming difficult myself.  Quite frankly, it takes up way too much energy.  So, I simplified things, I dropped things not aligned with my values,  got out of my way (listened to my heart, not my ego) and softened my attitude.

Here’s another liberating moment – we have choices, so before jumping into the next great thing or I have got to do this now, I have no time tailspin, think about this: are your short-term actions supporting and feeding your longer term goals and objectives.  By simplifying things, and getting clear about who you are and what’s important in life, you can accomplish more and do less, check out wise words from Marc Lesser, http://doingless.net/.    Personally, I am more creative and productive than ever before in my life, love what I do and things move with ease and flow.

But here’s something else to ponder and the paradox that goes hand in hand:  “the more we try to control our own world, the less control we have. The more, we are willing to let go of control and simply stay present with what is, the more control we have.”  The art & science underlying these concepts is ‘balance’ and operating from a place of love vs fear.  Watch the quality of your thoughts, as things continue to evolve and enjoy the moment.

As I reflect on this book and study the Yoga Sutras (ancient yoga philosophy) and thankfully Judith makes it accessible, I thought these excerpts are lovely reminders and refreshing lessons on ways to achieve the ‘elusive’ balance.  Bottom line – we’re accountable and we all have the ability to tap into it by creating awareness around ‘what is, accepting it, and moving forward in a mindful positive way’.

As productivity and engagement continue to decline, the world around us moving at warp speeds and stress is at and all time high – it’s time to do things differently.

Take a few minutes out of the day – breathe, be in the moment and reflect.  As the old saying goes: “Go with the flow”.

Get Grounded. Create Change.

Photograph – Dolly’s Point, Paula Pyne