Achieving Balance in an Out of Control Life!

So many people today feel like their life is out of control. Life is too fast, too busy, and just too confusing. Is there a way to take control of your life instead of life controlling us? Is it possible to live in this fast paced, often crazy world and still have a sense of ease and contentment? Maybe even have a sense of being in control? Yes, yes, and yes, at least most of the time.

But, and of course there is big but, you have to make the decision to let go of your story, the one about your life being out of control, and create a new one. You can take control and be in charge of your life if you REALLY want to. It will require you to start making decisions from a different prospective. You will also have to “dance to a different drummer”. To stand apart and not go along with the crowd, just because everyone else is living their life that way, doesn't mean you have to!

It would be much easier if you live on top of a mountain in a monastery. Living in the everyday world and achieving a sense of balance in your daily routine requires commitment and determination. And more than a little planning and organization. I won't tell you it will be easy, but it is more than worth the effort!

​Where do you start? First you must be conscious of your values. What do you value most, the values that are vital to you, living a fulfilled life. Here is a list of many common ones – if yours is not listed please add it.

Success
Family
Honesty
Integrity
Helping others
Self-care
Relationships with friends
Relationships with your children
Connection with nature
Spirituality
Freedom
Leisure activities
Travel Alone
Travel With Others
Time Alone
Time with others
Personal Growth
Learning (education)
Material Possessions
Fun
Time for Creativity
Adventure
Personal power
Fun
Recognition
Think about which ones are most important to you and rate them from 1 to 10. Now take a step back and really look at your list. Are you honoring what you rated as most important? We feel out of balance when we do not honor our highest values in the way we live our lives. Often we are so busy just doing, trying to survive, that we do not take time for what we value most. This leaves us feeling drained, over whelmed, exhausted, and out of control. Unless we are honoring our highest values we will never feel fulfilled and at peace. We try to solve the situation by adding more to our schedules, when need to SUBTRACT some things from our calendars or make different choices. How much of what you do honors who you want to be and how you desire to live your life?

Which values on the list are most out of balance? Write down the three you most want to bring into balance and make a plan that will incorporate them into your daily schedule. It may require you to make a different decision about how you are spending your time. If your spirituality is of high importance can you trade the time you spend watching TV for time meditating, praying, reading or listing to spiritual CDs? If your relationships are important, where can you carve out time for them? We tend to believe that our schedules are too full to add activities but we may simply need to make different choices as to where we spend our time. To live a life that is in balance we must get off automatic pilot and start taking control of how we spend our time and make decisions consciously based on what we really value.

And what if you could step away from it all for 2-3 days? Take time to breath, meditate, relax, laugh, and from this perspective reconnect to your highest values and create a plan for your life from this place? If you are interested in exploring this possibility watch for more information on my Women's Reset Weekend Retreats. A weekend for you to reset your life or you can email me at pattytolar@gmail.com

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