I listened to a podcast recently that really flipped my perception of balance on it’s head. I always looked at balance as a scale so to speak, equally balancing the portions of our life. I stopped pursuing balance when I realized it was an impossible myth to chase. There seemed to be this illusion of a balanced life that I felt I could never reach. It’s an exhausting pursuit. But what if… we took a good hard look at the meaning of balance, and divided the lie from the truths? Maybe then we could actually start finding the peace in our lives that we seek.
The Lie: Balance is a division of equal parts. It is so easy to believe this lie. When you are trying to achieve balance by juggling everything with equal energy, you are in constant motion. No peace is achieved, because you are putting so much energy into the juggle. We are so worried we well drop the ball in one arena of our life, that it becomes an ongoing struggle to uphold them all. Balancing as a verb, doesn’t allow our minds, bodies, or souls to rest. Balance as a form of
Truth 1: Balance requires us to choose an order of priorities. When we understand what is of most value to us, we are able to give the right amount of time and energy into these priorities. Instead of fighting for all of the sides of the scale to perfectly weigh in harmony, we actually want to put more weight onto some sides than others. Which leads us to truth two…
Truth 2: Balance is disproportionate! I expected things should weigh out evenly in the amount of time we spend on each portion of our life. However, when we pour more of ourselves into our priorities rather than trying to equally scatter ourselves, we find more of the healthy balance we ache for. Everything in it’s rightful place is actually the balance we usually seek. For instance, my priorities are my relationships with God, my marriage, my children, and taking care of my health. Work, friendships, hobbies, etc. come after that. If I can make decisions about my day according to those priorities, I can feel confidant that time and energy I put into anything else is enough. There doesn’t need to be guilt. There can actually be peace and confidence in where we are placing our time. Of course, if there is time in a day for everything, brava! If not, we can rest knowing we put our hearts where we needed them that day.
Truth 3: Choosing all good, can be an enemy of the great. I have experienced first hand how my desire to please everyone resulted in a stack of yeses I couldn’t keep up with. They were all good things, but they started to use up all of my energy leaving no room to give the best of myself to the greatest things in my life. In order to find a healthy balance, we have to be able to recognize when to say yes and no! As a chronic over-productive person, I had to learn my value wasn’t in the amount of things I was doing, but the quality in how I was living out these things.
Just had to write that all out as I am processing it all! Have you struggled with this topic in your life? There is a book called “The Best Yes” I am sure many of you have heard of that is worth a read or listen on audible. Balance as rest in the right things in my life is where I hope to rest for a while.
*Living room sources here.
