Finding balance is important for us to live out our best lives. We all know that it is important to balance exercise and nutrition. We learn that is important to find balance between your family life and time with friends. We are taught that we must find balance between work and play, too. It sounds like a lot of work, and it usually proves to be so. However, while we are juggling all of the different areas of life, in pursuit of balance, it does not have to feel like we are living out some absurd circus act. In fact, if it does feel like you are juggling while riding a unicycle on a tight rope, which I suspect after a global pandemic that it might, maybe you should re-evaluate your act? I did.

When one area of your life gets ornery— and you are juggling on a tightrope— your entire act is now at risk of catastrophic failure. It is impossible to juggle everything we want to do in a single day. We have to organize our time. When I first observed how I was organizing my time, I noticed that I tried to schedule in and complete everything foreseeably important into one day, or one week, or one month. Why? Because everything is important and everything needs done ASAP! If you agree, then I bet you are like me and do not set realistic expectations for yourself. Your expectations should be dependent on the task at hand. Larger tasks should be expected to consume larger amounts of time. Likewise, small tasks and everyday occurrences can be expected to take less time and require less devotion. I cycled through a couple of months of observing my daily grind, trying new scheduling ideas and noting experiences and outcomes. As I pursued my best balancing act, I realized over time that the old way of living— feeling rushed and anxious— does not have to be.

Exercising and eating healthy is something we need to do daily. I now take real time to recognize my physical and nutritional health. I found a new schedule for exercising that better balances the physical needs for my days. I changed when— as well as what— I eat to assist my body’s recovery from exercise and better pair that energy cycle other aspects of my day so that I do not feel exhausted when I need to feel focused. Our energy levels affect our balance, too. Make sure that your expected energy levels balance with the needs of your day.

Balancing work and play has always been more of a challenge since I tend to dig into my work and only come up for air when I have completed the task. So like most, scheduling in time for fun is a mental health issue. The weight of responsibility can pressure us into feeling anxiety. In pursuit of finding my better balancing act, I learned to let those anxious feelings pass through me instead of drive me. It takes time to reprogram our brains to not latch onto every fleeting anxiety, but if you work at it every day, it will happen. Understanding that mental health is important to sustaining productivity helps you understand how important it is to find time to relax. For example, it was a moment of relaxation that instigated my deciding to re-evaluate my balancing act.

Balancing the information we take in also affects us. If we take in nothing but negativity, we will most likely start spiraling into a negative mindset. We can become numb to positive outcomes and lose our ability to feel any sort of balance. Finding that balance that keeps you grounded is a big ask. In my personal experience, it is worth the time. You deserve it.