Deep breath. We have made it to the second week of January. The Holidays are sadly over, and we are back to our regular schedules. Only, getting back into a routine after such a busy season, can be difficult (especially, if it involves a stomach bug). In fact, I struggled with it for years until yoga taught me something important about finding and keeping a balanced life.

If you’ve ever done yoga, you know there is typically a portion of every session dedicated to physical balance. For one of the more common moves, Tree, the instructor has you stand on one foot, as you rest your other foot on the inside of your upper thigh. While doing this, you hold your hands in prayer or reach your arms high in the air. If you are good at balance or have been doing Yoga for a while, the Tree pose is old hat for you. But, if you are like me, such a simple looking pose is an ongoing challenge.

As I have shared before, my husband and I did P90X3 last year, and almost weekly, we did Yoga. Which meant, almost weekly, I was challenged with becoming a “tree.” I would stand firmly on one foot, as I tried to put my other foot in a position where it would stay. Then, when I finally put my hands to prayer, I would start to wobble. While focusing on a still object in the room, my lower body would shake, trying to find a place of perfect and quiet balance. And though I never reached the “arms in the air” phase of Tree, the practice reminded me of this struggle we have with living a balanced life.

Living a balanced life is a message we hear regularly on TV commercials, and yet it is one that seems to elude us in our every day lives. When I was twenty-three, and I finally landed a job in my chosen profession, I thought I knew what I wanted out of life—my career, friends, eventually a husband, maybe some kids, etc. However, it didn’t take me long to realize I had left an important thing off of my list: Balance. I wanted to live a balanced life. But how?

Working a job that could easily take up all of my waking and sleeping hours, I discovered working 9-5 and living college hours were no longer a sustainable possibility.  I was becoming worn out rather quickly. I needed help.

So I sought out mentors from the people I looked up to. I asked them their secrets, and the word balance quickly became the theme. Like any good student, I asked a lot of questions. I found out what balance looked like in their lives—leaving work at a specific time every day, getting in exercise, learning to put up healthy boundaries, etc.—all information that helped me begin to gain a vision of what a life of balance could look like for me.

Then, I joined a gym. I started to fully take my Fridays off (I worked Sundays). I became more thoughtful about my work hours, and I put up good boundaries in my life. Soon, I had more energy. I felt like a better version of myself.

Until, a crisis occurred or a holiday season came up, swamping any semblance of balance my life was beginning to enjoy…

Have the holiday’s left your schedule feeling a little shaky?

What is helping you find routine again?

Part 2 can be found here.

 

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