What actually is balance? Life has me thinking on this, especially as we are all taught to have a healthy work/life balance. I’d like to crack open this misnomer as I’d call it.
A couple of photos of the Crinan Canal by Lochgilphead from a walk earlier today.
Where does your journey start?
I believe in life as one holistic existence and there is no private or public life. Just life and of how we live it. We need to really know ourselves (see further) in order to understand, live, and change our lives; so displacing the modern society model or artifice of private life and work as separate entities. This is social conditioning that dictates we live life on society’s, other’s terms, and that work, on average, takes more then 50% of one’s life.
We ought in fact to live life fully and not dissect it or split it and thus ourselves, willingly giving more to work as though it is a separate life to our own real one.
So how do I deconstruct thework/life structure that so many of us live by.
Happiness!
I believe in happiness and that one should pursue what makes us happy. All will fall into place after that. So one should think of what makes us happy. Because surely this is a more sound pursuit. And this then becomes the realm of dreams!
Which so often is conditioned out of us from childhood. You must get a job, a house, a career, get married….. if you can please read the familiar book Walkabout by James Vance. And failing that watch the film staring a young Jenny Agutter.
For dreams read:
https://www.foundus.co.uk/talk/a-scottish-adventure-dreams-fulfilled-what-is-your-dream
We need to be aware of nature and nurture, of us and our place in our environment, of whether we want to be subject to others and what they say. Have you really thought of whether your values and beliefs are those of others instilled in you from young? Work/life balance - where did you learn this and why?
Have you thought, really thought what you actually stand for, believe in, are? This can be quite difficult but worthwhile. Why two diametrically opposed parts to life in the form of work and non-work?!? Can you say to yourself and describe, “my life is… and I live my life to live my dream of….”
Let’s get one thing clear. We have just one life. Not a ‘work’ life and ‘personal’ life, just one.
(From There is no ‘Work-Life Balance’ — there’s just Life by Ant Murphy.
The article I quote one makes for good reading and nails key points I wish to make, and of how my views have changed. I don’t necessarily agree with all Mr Murphy says, but I certainly agree with his last paragraph.
We just have ‘life’ and we get to choose how we spend it. Life’s too short to have anything less.
Know thyself" is a philosophical maxim that means to fully understand oneself, including one's emotions, desires, and abilities.
It is best known from being inscribed on the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, Greece.
Could your life be a wobbly Jenga tower? Work and non work life in cosmic conflict as one never pleases the other. Do you have that constant feeling of chasing your tail? Of never quite achieving? That’s how I was. It was hard, but I collapsed my old tower and rebuilt. But I rebuilt no tower to rival other towers. I live and breathe and am Me, and being Me is an exposition of my dreams. I am authentic to others and myself. True to myself as to where I can be, and for that matter want to be. I am beholden to none.
You need to know yourself first, understand what you really believe in and want. On doing this you can seek your happiness, and life will fit into place for you. Work and other elements come under your control to deliver upon the dream, versus you being under their control.
Happiness rubs off on people as they see a liberation from worldly woes we thought we suffered from.
You have choice and many of us forget this. We let life (environment) make choices for us, including what we believe in.
And with choice we can live life knowing ourselves, look for and give happiness, and achieve dreams in one or many actions. We are not spread thin or in conflict for example by trying to live two very different lives - that of work and private life, or of parent, child, brother, sister etc. We can live as us and be free to chose. We can choose our role in life.
We have choice. We have action.
Making Wise Decisions
“Questions are never indiscreet; answers sometimes are.”
—Oscar Wilde
Over and over again, we circle the same thoughts in our minds, certain that if we keep chewing on them, we’ll be better able to make important decisions. Should we commit ourselves to a new relationship? Is it time to take a new job? Do we need to stand up for a principle?
The harder we try to make that “perfect decision,” the tighter and more obsessed we become. It starts to feel like the most important decision of our lives. The very process of decision making becomes a problem.
Instead of recycling the same thoughts, let us ask, “What’s the worst thing that can happen if we choose a given path today?” “Is this decision in sync with ourselves and our recovery?” “Will it work for today?” When we answer these questions, our choices are clear. And when we make positive, healthy decisions, the cycle of worry can stop. Our lives are more serene, more productive, and more calm.
Today help me to keep my perspective. No decision is without risk—but few are irreversible.
This inspiration is from
Body, Mind, and Spirit: Daily Meditations.
© 1990 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.
Quoted from the app Inspirations.
