There is no magic recipe for living a healthy lifestyle. Rather, it is a series of daily choices. Additionally, the term “health” can be understood as a holistic word that encompasses all parts of your being including physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Below are some helpful idea to get you started on your journey to better health.

Mental Health

Your mental health can greatly affect the way you think, feel and behave.  It’s no small coincidence that mental health is strongly linked to physical health. Most medical professionals unanimously agree about the importance of keeping the mind and body harmoniously aligned.  If you want to keep your mental health in sync with the rest of your body, here are a few basic steps to help get you started.

1. Put together a jigsaw puzzle
2. Complete a crossword puzzle or word game such as Scrabble
3. Solve a number puzzle such as Sudoku
4. Read a book and discuss it with a friend
5. Learn to play a musical instrument
6. Take up a new hobby
7. Try a new recipe
8. Build something with your hands
9. Make a craft or art project
10. Try to learn and use a new word each day
11. Learn a new game such as Chess
12. Memorize a poem
13. Learn to play a new sport – The skills you acquire when playing sports will benefit you both mentally and physically
14. Eat for your brain health – Brain food includes fish, nuts, seeds, and food sources with monounsaturated fats (most people recognize these as Omega 3-Fatty Acids)
15. Turn off your TV – Studies have shown that a shockingly high percentage of the brain is inactive when you are watching TV. (studies have also shown that children and adults learn more from experience than from what they watch on television)
16. De-clutter your home – Getting rid of clutter and organizing your life helps you to function better by allowing your mind to relax and helping you stay on top of deadlines and projects (If you find it hard to throw things away, ask yourself this question “have I used this in the last year”, if you haven’t toss it! Not only will it help you get rid of uneeded “excess”, but it will revitalize you.

Whether your keeping your synapses firing by putting together a jigsaw puzzle or working on an art project, you’re building an important bridge along the barrier of your body and mind.

Spiritual Health:

Before modern medicine was born, people turned to divine intervention for help and guidance.  You don’t have to be a religions person, to be spiritual.  Although it might seem like these two things follow one another, it is possible to find spirituality in a random act of kindness, or in the smile of a small child.  The simple truth is, you don’t have to look far, spirituality is all around you. [or spiritual health is all around us]

Regardless of your system of beliefs, you cannot neglect the nurturing and growth of your spirit. These helpful suggestions can be integrated into any faith or belief system.

17. Read an inspiring book to get you inspired to plot a plan to live out your dreams.
18. Practice loving kindness – on yourself and watch how much it boosts your self esteem.
19. Engage in a meaningful conversation with someone of a different faith (practicing and living a “tolerant” life will bring amazing benefits.)
20. Keep a journal of your reflections on life each day
21. Spend time each day in prayer or meditation or other really cool ways to boost your vibe without breaking a sweat!
22. Help a random stranger – This could be as simple as holding the door open for someone or paying for the order behind you in the drive-thru line. Awesomeness!
23. Get outdoors and enjoy nature (subscribe to your city magazine for fun excursions in your community, these are often free, and will continue to be mailed to you each year)
24. Let go of an old grudge
25. Send a card to a friend to let them know that you were thinking about him or her
26. Apologize to someone you have wronged
27. Make a list of 50 thinks you love about yourself or are grateful for.
28. Send a Thank-You card to someone who has helped you recently

Emotional Health:

Closely tied to your spiritual and mental health, your emotional health deals with issues of the heart. If your mother spent a lot of time telling you that happy people live longer, she knew what she was talking about.  Emotional health plays an important part in the foundation of our physical and mental health.  Our emotions are closely regulated by hormones in the body that act, and react to how we are feeling.  Have you ever been in an intense situation, where your fear, exitement, or anxiety caused your heart to beat faster?  Our adrenal glands release hormones that react to just about everything, including old memories that we may hold on to, that still facilitate an emotional response from us.  Your emotional health sits on a balance that interacts with the body, mind, and spirit- so make sure you give it a little extra attention.

29. Manage your debt and budget your living costs – money plays a significant role in emotional health, especially during a financial crisis.
30. Get a massage  – Massage not only helps to you relax and de-stress, but has physical benefits as well, such as reducing muscle tension and improving circulation.
31. Watch a sunrise and sunset
32. Plant a tree or garden
33. Take a healing detox bath – with lots of epsom salts and some lavender essential oil, my favorite.

Physical Health:

Keeping your body healthy goes hand in hand with the other aspects of your health. Obviously, diet and exercise play a critical role in a healthy lifestyle, plus, have you checked out the price of liposuction? That is enough motivation alone for me to commit to a healthy active lifestyle!  You don’t have to work out 3 hours a day to get the body you want, or to maintain your health.  Medical professionals recommend working out at least 20 minutes a day, at a rate that gets your heart pumping above your normal rate.  This amount of exercise will set you on the path to a healthy and happy heart.  It may also break the ice, if you are not a fan of working out.

34. Exercise 3 to 5 times per week
35. Exercise for at least 20 minutes per session
36. Use resistance training
37. Engage in a variety of exercise modalities
38. Swim
39. Walk
40. Run
41. Cycle
42. Row
43. Climb stairs
44. Group Fitness Class
45. Dance
46. Yoga
47. Pilates
48. Drink plenty of water
49. Complete a seasonal detox – nothing boost your energy like detoxing. I detox for each season to ward off the effects of the toxins in our environment.
50. Fast occasionally
51. Eat cold water fish
52. Drink green tea
53. Drink red wine
54. Drink cranberry juice diluted with water
55. Eat grass fed meats
56. Buy organic produce
57. Consume free range eggs and poultry
58. Take a multivitamin
59. Get adequate sleep each night
60. Eat small meals throughout the day
61. Watch your portion size
62. Get 30 minutes of sunlight each day
63. Drink filtered water
64. Eat fermented foods
65. Eat cultured foods
66. Avoid preservatives
67. Avoid processed flour
68. Avoid processed sugar
69. Limit dairy intake
70. Wash fruits and vegetables
71. Grow your own fruits
72. Grow your own vegetables – Delicious for your health and budget!
73. Use a body brush
74. Exfoliate your skin
75. Moisturize your skin
76. Wear sunscreen
77. Use natural cosmetic products
78. Avoid harsh chemicals
79. Practice deep breathing
80. Eat protein at every meal – this does not necessarily mean meat – there are plenty of vegetarian protein sources.
81. Build meals around protein and produce
82. Eat lean meats
83. Go Gluten FREE!  – When I  eliminated dairy & gluten, I was surprised at how much bloating disappeared in my body.
84. Avoid packaged foods
85. Limit sodium intake
86. Avoid canned foods
87. Quit using plastic bottles
88. Use aromatherapy scents and oils
89. Stretch everyday
90. Maintain oral hygiene
91. Keep up with doctor and alternative health practitioner visits
92. Schedule age appropriate health screenings
93. Wash your hands with warm water
94. Don’t share cosmetics
95. Don’t share beverages
96. Limit alcohol intake – unless it’s summer and there are mint mojito’s on the menu.
97. Avoid tobacco products
98. Buy local produce
99. Eat a variety of foods
100. Aim for colorful meals
101. Enjoy each moment

Spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental health all play an important role in our daily lives.  When one is out of sync, they all become affected in different ways.  We all find working on these aspects of our life, difficult, and some areas may be harder to work on than others. The key is to love yourself enough to make healthy choices, without going overboard on obsessing about your health.

The bottom line in achieving a healthy lifestyle is to choose FUN OVER STRESS!

You can do everything “right” but if you are stressed out, you will find that stress will bite you in the ass with burnout, fatigue, depression or even a lowered immune system.

So nurture yourself – have fun, play…..LOVE

Monica

xo

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101 Ideas For A Healthy Lifestyle

I am surprised that I have not done a post about cleansing on HGM! After a long break while having babies and nursing, I finally completed two cleanse programs this spring that I found to be totally exhilarating. Now I am cleansing again, this time very gently over a longer period of time. My goal? More vibrant energy and a clear mind to assist me while I move forward with my vision for empowering women to conceive and birth their passion.

Having done many cleanse programs over the years, I often customizing them to suit my goals and they have generally been  more advanced. Today, I’m going to highlight my favorite cleanse programs for beginners!

Why would anybody want to cleanse?

A cleanse program 1-2 times each year and more for therapeutic benefits is a great way to detox the irritants we are all environmentally exposed to that build up over time. Genetically, our body has no way to eliminate the food additives introduced to our food chain. These materials get deposited in the digestive tract, colon, liver, lymphatic system and kidneys. Cleansing on a regular basis aids our body in elimination in the modern world.

Cleansing is also one of the most effective ways to establish a healthy routine. They also  introduce you to diet plans that are supportive to your vitality.  You’ll acquire healthy eating habits that will stay with you for your entire life. You’ll lose weight, improve your overall health, boost your immunity, clear up the brain fog, feel more energetic throughout the day and sleep better. Yeah baby!

Sometimes I get funny looks when I talk about cleansing. I grew up watching my parents cleanse each year and to date, my family has no illnesses whatsoever. Considering the statistics, I attribute their clean bill of health (especially as they enter the golden years) to eating from a garden for most of my life and cleansing religiously twice each year.

I did my first cleanse when I was 16 years old. It was a colonic irrigation and although I did not find it enjoyable, I was astonished a how my vitality changed in one short hour. I arrived tired and hung over (rebellious teen!) and I left bright eyed and energetic. This was when I knew for myself the power of a healthy digestive tract to enhance my vitality.

Another cleanse program dramatically altered my health while I was recovering from years of a toxic lifestyle. I loved my youthful ideals but I did not love myself enough to care for my body and I polluted my body for years. In addition to a toxic lifestyle, I also became a “one chocolate bar a day” kind of gal. The craving for sweets were intense and this type of physical and emotional cravings are usually due to a candida overgrowth. After doing two back to back candida cleanses, I eliminated my sweet craving entirely. To this day, I have never gone back to sweets in an addictive way. (occasional & only for pleasure)

Over the years, I have discovered the power of nutrition and cleansing to aid me in self healing on a cellular level. I moved through addiction, depression and illness without medical drugs or assistance because of the power of cleansing programs and adopting a healthy holistic lifestyle and mindset.

Ideally, the best cleansing times are spring and fall. Winter is not a good time because we are typically at “rest” and the body in not renewing during this time. You also will find it harder to manage the hot and cold sensations in winter. Summer is OK, however some cleanses limit your intake of fruit (Candida Cleanse Program) which can be hard in the summertime so it depends on which program you choose.

I know, like I know, that I know, that a yearly cleansing program is critical for anyone desiring optimal health.

Do You Need a Cleanse?

I generally follow two “rules” for cleansing. One, I normally cleanse each spring and fall. This follows the natural rhythm of the earth through “renewal and reflection” Two PERFECT times to cleanse.

Secondly, I cleanse when I have fallen off my healthy routine or I feel some of the following symptoms: (*note that many of the major symptoms are not normally an issue anymore once you’ve been cleansing for a while)

Lethargic or mid day fatigue, moody, *depression, *anxiety, skin disruptions, candida itch, tired in the mornings, dark circles under the eyes, cravings for alcohol or sweets, irregular digestion and bowel movements, PMS, brain fog, difficulty with memory, vision troubles, headaches….the list goes on!!

Which Cleanse Program is Best?

When the body has lost it’s state of balance or has gone through a period of depressed immunity, there are 6 main cleansing programs that can help you restore your vitality.

Parasites, Candida, Heavy Metal Toxicity, Liver Detox, Kidney Cleanse and Total Body Gentle Cleanse Programs. (the cleanses I have linked to are ones I have personal experience with and feel they are a good start for beginners.)

The total body cleanse program I recommend is also a fantastic way for mothers to cleanse before or after having children and nursing without experiencing the usual “healing crisis” symptoms that can be inconvenient with young children!

The general rule of thumb is to focus on one area at a time as a new cleanser, lets say ridding your body of toxic metals first and cleanse this issue for a period of up to 6 months with short breaks, and then shift into cleansing the body twice each year. A heavy metal cleanse program is very important, but you can also do a heavy metal test first to see if this is essential for you or not.

Parasites are also a bug big concern and should be addressed with a parasite cleanse program in the beginning of adopting a healthier lifestyle or repeated every 1-2 years, especially for Sushi lovers, those who travel abroad or eat med-rare meat. They generally take 30 days and do not require a very strict diet.

A candida cleanse program is one of those essential programs in the beginning of cleansing or adopting a healthier lifestyle. The standard North American diet is not friendly and most people have an overgrowth of candida and do not realize it. If you find you crave sweets, alcohol, bread, pasta, fruit juice etc and you also have many of the symptoms that you have not been able to find the root cause  for, then it is worth doing a candida cleanse program. I have found that after dealing with the initial Candida, I have been able to maintain the candida balance by listening to my body and altering my diet as required.

You may also want to try an herbal fiber colon cleanse. Fiber has the ability to expand within the colon where it’s able to trap impacted wastes and toxins and carry them out of the body as it leaves. When blended with digestive herbs, fiber makes a great, all natural cleanse for colon detoxification.

A Gentle Cleanse Program for Mothers

One of the things that changed after having children was the intensity of my cleanses. I used to do the MasterCleanse (fasting 12-15 days except for a special juice combination) but now I cannot rest enough through the detox symptoms the way I used to. My young kids need me to have energy, all the time!

I am on The Cleanse for Life Program right now which is a gentle total body cleanse. It’s unique because it replenishes vital nutrients as it cleanses your body. If you are familiar with natural cleansing herbs, you’ll know how important Pau D’arco, Yellow Dock and Aloe Vera are in aiding the body to release toxins and improve vitality. There are also powerful antioxidants like bilberry, blueberry and raspberry, which help protect your body from free radicals and support cardiovascular and brain health.

Cleanse for Life is designed to feed and nourish your body because it gives your body the nutrition it needs to cleanse itself naturally. It nourishes the liver and promotes cleansing the entire body on a cellular level.

I drink it once each day to aid the removal of surface-level impurities you are exposed to on a daily basis.

I also deep cleanse periodically by drinking it 3-4 times each day for 9-30 days to help remove contaminants that have collected deep within the body tissues over time but what is cool is that I don’t experience the deep cleanse symptoms I know so well. Deep cleansing has the added benefit of promoting weight loss.

If you want to try cleansing but are scared of the cleansing symptoms you’ve heard about, this would be a good introduction to cleansing. It is also does not matter what time of the year, because it is so gentle and effective.

Doing a cleanse program twice a year or using gentle cleanse programs periodically like Cleanse for Life are as essential to me as taking key supplements (multivitamin, probiotic, omega oils)

Remember, with all of this information, I also believe it is important NOT to be a FANATIC cleanser! Just focus on how good you want to feel, not on how many ways the world is making you sick that require you to cleanse, right?

A good cleanse program is like a good holiday. After a few days of adjusting, you will feel more refreshed, energetic, happy and ready to take on the world! Once you try cleansing and feel how much your energy increases, you’ll wonder why you weren’t cleansing all along.

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Gentle Cleanse Programs for Mothers

The importance of living a healthy lifestyle for maintaining general good health and preventing chronic diseases has been well established. A healthy lifestyle is quite simple to achieve – one does not need to do anything “crazy” to adopt a healthy lifestyle. I will say that a certain amount of independent thinking is required to separate truth from fiction in most modern health advice currently being delivered.

The most important thing you can do is eat well. Avoid toxins in your food as much as possible and consume plenty of fresh fruit, veggies and whole grains; exercise moderately a few times per week; avoid smoking, including secondhand smoke; and avoid gaining too much weight (which should come naturally if you eat right and exercise). While it is not always possible to eat all Organic food – the EWG recommends 12 fruits and vegetables that should be organic because of their higher levels of pesticide residue.  Avoiding environmental toxins as much as you can is an important part of achieving a healthy lifestyle.

Our modern lifestyle is very convenient – but it can also be extremely unhealthy. Most of us eat too many processed foods and too few fruit and veggies; we rarely exercise; and when we develop chronic conditions such as diabetes, we rely on conventional medications to make us feel better – but these medications often have devastating side effects. Instead of accepting the importance of living a healthy lifestyle for us and for future generations, we continue with our bad habits – then take potent, toxic medication to treat our inevitable symptoms.

Of course, not all aspects of living a healthy lifestyle are in our control. We are going to be exposed to certain environmental toxins whether we like it or not. But many of these factors are absolutely in our control. Whenever we can, we should be responsible and make the right choices.

This is why it is so important to be sure you eat well as the key factor in achieving a healthy LIFESTYLE.

I say “lifestyle” because what I know is that “eating well” can sometimes be something a person does with resentment because they feel “sacrifice” is required to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

I remember when people who ate poor foods used to joke with me and say I was not really living because I chose not to eat pizza and drink beer – and I always replied “how much LIVING can you do when your body is recovering from what you put in it?”

Shifting from an Unhealthy to a Healthy Lifestyle

The reason I discuss the healthy lifestyle tip of simply EATING WELL on my blog is because it has been so effective for my health.

It was not always like this though. I remember when I was addicted to a chocolate bar each day and I always had headaches or an infection or illness of some kind. 

In addition to excessive sugar cravings (eating a chocolate bar each day) I also suffered from many unhealthy symptoms that were challenging to resolve through traditional medicine: Frequent headaches, Skin problems (ie. eczema, acne, hives, Bloating, Gas, Bad Breath, Weak or brittle hair and nails, Fatigue and lethargy, Excessive stress, Candida overgrowth, Yeast infections, Food or Environmental Allergies, Anxiety or depression, Diarrhea, Constipation, Memory loss, Mood swings, Frequent colds or infections, PMS or bad menstrual cramps, Bladder infection, Loss of sex drive…etc

Ughhh! No fun at all!

Years later, I LOVE good food and I am rarely sick. Eating well is the perfect way to get in tune with your body and really get back to basics of what your body needs. It challenges you to give up the vices that you take for granted, break your addictive eating habits and start again from the beginning. Eating well is a healthy lifestyle choice that gives you clarity on what your body really needs, not craves and becomes the foundation for all other healthy lifestyle choices.

An important thing to remember with eating well is to really examine your root philosophy for adapting more healthy foods into your lifestyle.

This is SO IMPORTANT!

If it’s simply to loose a few pounds – I personally feel that this is not enough of a motivator and you will set yourself up for “failure” however, if you choose to eat well to enjoy a better quality of life, to do things you have not done in years and to not get sick anymore, then this is a wonderful motivator that will likely last!

So, getting really practical, eating well obviously involves making a few changes to the foods you prepare and enjoy.

I always listen to my body when I eat. I do not calorie count, measure my fist, use ratio’s or anything that causes me to separate myself form the food I eat.

The main reason I enjoy excellent health is because I am critical of what I eat – I choose to eat REAL food.

Because of this, I do not need expensive supplements or challenging programs to maintain my weight.

Delicious menus of real, whole foods allow me to enjoy the things so many diet plans warn against.

This  sounds simple enough, but what I have learned is that many people simply do not know what a healthy lifestyle consists of, especially when it comes to food!

I try to keep things as simple as possible. I shop from the perimeter of the grocery store, eat mostly wild and free range chicken, very little meat and mostly raw organic fruits and vegetables, with beans and rice. It’s not practical to list everything I eat here, but feel free to download my FREE Healthy Grocery List while you are here!

The Future Depends on our Health

Living a healthy lifestyle, free as much as possible of toxins (in our environment and in our food) and of stress, is important to us – but it’s also important for future generations. Scientists are also now discovering the impact nutrition has on our DNA! Healthy trees bear healthy fruit. A continued lifestyle of sickness will have a lasting effect on future generations and on our planet.

The results of years of living an unhealthy lifestyle are obvious. We are currently faced with a sharp increase in chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease, with an obesity rate so high it’s considered an epidemic, and with growing rates of infertility. The number of children diagnosed with autism, Asperger’s syndrome or ADHD is alarmingly high.

We should also remember that our children carefully watch us and emulate us. If they see us act responsibly now, they will likely adopt a similar approach of taking care of themselves and of the planet when they become adults.

We must each ask ourselves if we are modeling the importance of a healthy lifestyle to our children. If we do not show them how to care for themselves, they will likely turn to the food corporations instead. How will they know the difference between real food, “food like” substances?

I keep about 6 – 8 fantastic cookbooks on hand including the acclaimed ebook The Delicious Revolution. From these books, I create simple meal plans that I rotate each month based on about 15 simple meal ideas.

In addition to eating Delicious Food (that is real and healthy!) I suggest the following ways to help model a positive approach to food in our children:

• Young children especially learn about the world through imitation. How do you feel each day as you prepare your family’s meals? Are you hurried, frustrated, and disconnected? We can show our children that eating healthy is important by the way we approach our meal times. If we are happy and engaged in making a meal, and then take pleasure in eating together we affirm that food is more than something to fill the hole but is a necessary part of a happy and healthy family life. In short, your children will imitate what they see so make sure you are placing a positive value around the activities involving healthy living.

• Involve your children in meal preparation, even once or twice a week. By discussing how good certain foods taste and by letting them help you cook you will show that it’s important to take the time to prepare a healthy meal instead of throwing something in the microwave. You never know, you may inspire a future chef!

• Make a plan to eat together as often as possible. By each decision you make to eat together, you are casting a value judgment on the importance of  healthy living and that it involves more than just eating a few more vegetables.

We can and should make an effort to change our habits and accept the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. If society won’t make changes, then we as individuals need to make them. After all, if we leave our health to someone else guess what they have planned for you? Not much.

I have absolute confidence that you can make the switch to living a healthy lifestyle and eliminating the nuisance symptoms that result from a body that is overloaded with toxins from our North American lifestyle. I was able to do this by following simple strategies, cooking from informative books that helped me switch my lifestyle over and enjoying life!

In all this talk about living a healthy lifestyle – we cannot overlook simply choosing to ENJOY LIFE!

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The Importance of Living a Healthy Lifestyle

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is actually easier than most people realize. It starts with the right mindset – and once you have that mindset, once you care about how you live your life and what you put into your body, it’s easy to make the right choices.

When people tell me they find it hard to resist fast food, I tell them my own story.  I grew up in a very healthy home however once I moved away, maintaining a healthy lifestyle was difficult. Fast food soon became my weakness. Since it was easy on my wallet, I had it about once a week and loved it. Quick, tasty and inexpensive. Then I was given the book Fast Food Nation and there was no going back for me! It weaned me off fast food forever.

Still, the thought of fast food continued to be alluring, until one day, after about two years of staying away from fast food, I entered a fast food place to meet a friend. The stench was overwhelming! I had to leave. As it turns out, if you stay away from fast food long enough, the smell that you used to consider as “tempting” becomes practically disgusting. The strong odor of non-fresh food cooked in grease becomes revolting.

In other words, once you stop eating junk, and get your body retrained to prefer natural foods and your taste buds to enjoy the more subtle flavors of fresh foods, you won’t even miss junk anymore.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle certainly requires a certain amount of personal responsibility. The food industry does everything it can to shove junk down our throats, but we don’t have to act like helpless victims. Educate yourself, read labels carefully, question statistics and “research,” and work to find what is best for you and for your family through trial and error. Learn to respect your body and its needs and plan for long term health and wellness instead of satisfying short-term cravings induced by advertising.

Above all, remember that maintaining a healthy lifestyle means ignoring trends. Stick to the basic health premise that we should do things the way nature intended us to do them. Isolated or paired down foods are not easy for the body to recognize or to digest. Stick with the basics – the foods that your great grandparents used to eat – a variety of grains (soaked!) fresh fruit and vegetables in season, whole milk, eggs, fish, organic chicken and beef, homemade soup stocks, olive oil, and real butter. Even the health food industry is still an industry and it still pushes things on us that we don’t really need, such as artificial sweeteners, low fat foods and disturbingly highly processed energy bars.

Adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle often involves a personal transformation that includes respecting oneself more and understanding why we made the unhealthy choices in the first place. Once the belief about oneself and what is healthy has changed, it’s much harder to bring home junk food and to put it into our bodies.

Hey, come visit the me and leave a comment! I'd love to hear from you. If you enjoyed this article, thank you for giving it a boost on social media. © All rights reserved. This post is from HealthyGreenMoms and cannot be republished without express written permission.

How to Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle

These days, it seems everyone is talking about “living a balanced life.” For years I have also repeated this mantra, believing that gaining more life balance is the best way to keep my authentic self from sliding under the carpet of life’s never-ending demands. However, I now question whether the goal of “living a more balanced life” serves my life or is even realistic.

Instead of being more fulfilled, I find myself becoming frustrated by the concept of living a more balanced life. When I approach life using the “balance” mantra, I find there is always an area in my life that receives little attention and so I wonder, why does “living  a balanced life” continue to elude me?

What Does Balance Mean To You?

Balance does not mean the same thing for all people. I have always defined balance as being able to regularly give attention to my life’s priorities. Basically, to give balanced attention. To be able to disperse my energy (somewhat evenly) with the intention that I do not deplete areas in my life that are important to me. The areas in my life that I focus on include Spiritual, Physical, Financial, Relational and Mental.

Is this similar to your concept of a balanced life? Different?

I can’t say whether the concept of balance is flawed for everyone, but I do know that “seeking a balanced life” no longer works for me.

They may only be words but words are a powerful force in your life.

Why are so many people “seeking a more balanced life?” Balance implies equilibrium or stability produced by an even distribution of weight. I don’t believe life evenly distributes it’s weight. Is life by nature in a state of equilibrium?

Balance is also used to describe someones emotional or mental state (as being calm.) Having a calm disposition amidst a dynamic and inspired life make more sense to me. Perhaps it is a calm disposition people are actually seeking, instead of a balanced life?

So Is The Concept of Living a Balanced Life Bogus?

This week we saw James Arthur Ray live in Vancouver. It was one year ago that James Ray that first introduced the idea to me that  “Balance is Bogus.” He sees the quest for balance as an illusion, an impossible dream. And I have to admit, when I first heard his idea of balance is bogus, it came as a relief to me!

Whether you think balance is bogus or not depends on who you are. Perhaps you already feel you “live a life of balance?”

But seeking a balanced life is not the  right answer for all of us. Is it possible that you have grabbed the “living a more balanced life” mantra when another perspective may be more helpful to you?

I think the quest for balance depends on what you want out of your life at any given time. If you are trying to achieve balance while looking for a  breakthrough in some area of your life, it’s no wonder balance can feel like an impossible dream!

In his book Harmonic Wealth, James Ray suggests that instead of balance, you should be seeking Harmony:

Think of a scale. In perfect balance, nothing is happening. There’s no dynamism, no life or vibrancy. Now think of a jazz band in action – the life and action are palpable, aren’t they? The performers in this band have less to do with melody and more to do with improvising. They give life to the nuance and the music takes shape in the moment. That’s harmony. The different parts aren’t balanced-sometimes the saxophone leads. Sometimes it’s the bass, or the drum or lead guitar. Whatever instrument is out in front in the moment, they’re all contributing, all creating that amazing thing called music.

I want you to think of your life this way. When you are in harmony, some days your parenting skills will lead. Other times it’ll be your job or your school. On certain occasions your marriage will take center stage. Some days you’re going to be running on two hours sleep, having worn the same clothes three days in a row. It may not be pretty, but that may just be just what it takes to finish the business plan that lands you the big dollars and the nourishing rest and relaxation that follows.

Perfect balance is death of mind and death of spirit.

Maybe it’s time to re-examine this popular mantra. Seeking balance among a dynamic life seems to go against it’s natural and constantly changing flow.

“But I’ve Achieved Balance With a Schedule!”

Many people claim that creating a more balanced life is made possible by using a schedule.

I have  found that using a schedule to help me create more balance only leaves me feeling depleted in all areas! (by scheduling the key areas: Spiritual, Physical, Financial, Relational and Mental)

As I see it, the problem with using a schedule to help create a balanced life is that the schedule ends up dispersing my attention and energy over too many areas. When energy is dispersed over too many areas, breakthroughs and growth become more difficult.

I now use schedules as a management tool to prevent me from losing track of the necessary aspects of my life, but not to help me create a more balanced life.

Personal Growth and Transformation Require Energy!

Most everyone in the personal transformation industry will agree that in order to grow and achieve major breakthroughs in any area of your life, sustained and focused energy is required.

If I look back on our lives over the last few years I would say that our lives have not been very balanced. At the same time, we have grown immensely in a few key areas of our life.

My husband has become very successful in his industry. Looking back on his growth an an entrepreneur, it’s not balance that made him successful! A lot of hard work, personal changes, risk and sacrifice, late nights of creativity, work weekends etc were all required of him. But the high demands in his business are not present ALL the time. The demands come in waves. Much like a creative and dynamic life in motion.

Many powerful and influential men and women that we have met in the last 2-3 years are not living a balanced life either! Are they happy and fulfilled? I would say that on the whole, they seem to the most fulfilled and purpose driven group I have ever met.

Why?

They are not reigned in by the concept of “living a balanced life.” Instead, they approach their life like an jazz musician. They focus on a key area in their life with sustained energy and attention while the other keys also contribute to the harmony. When the harmony shifts and another key takes center stage, they flow with the harmony and give the key the attention it deserves.

You may not always be able to see the harmony in the moment, but I believe harmony is a much more realistic way to approach my life. How about you?

Would viewing your life as a “harmony” rather than seeking to “live a more balanced life” be a helpful change in perspective for you?

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Forget Balance. Embrace Harmony!