by Ivy from Beautifully Simply You
Have you ever sat on a seesaw and tried to make it level out in perfect balance? It’s pretty difficult! Life can often look like that, a very difficult balancing act. In life, we are often trying to juggle multiple jobs, multiple demands, multiple friends and multiple feelings. How can we possibly handle being a child, parent, sibling, friend, employee and employer all in one? I am not sure there is one easy fix, but I do know that juggling so many demands can look and feel like you are imbalanced.
I work a full time job. I am a small business owner and speak to students about mental health, I aim to write blog posts every Monday, I am hosting a very large mental health event in my hometown, the first of it’s kind, I go through a whirlwind of emotions daily, and I am a friend, a girlfriend, a daughter and a sister. I mean the list goes on and on and yours probably looks somewhat similar to mine. I also often feel out of balance and stressed. I also wonder what balance looks like for me and how I can achieve it.
I remember I made a vision board once and I cut out of a magazine an image of a woman who was juggling a bunch of laxatives with her arms, her feet, and her head, which is pretty funny in itself. This image didn’t catch my eye because of the laxatives, it caught my eye because I related so much to this woman. I knew exactly what it felt like to juggle so many things. The main difference was that I wasn’t as “happy” as this woman appeared to be in the ad. Finding balance isn’t always as pretty as balancing a bunch of laxatives!
I think finding balance is a life long process because there will always be new demands. Sometimes we feel that if we remove something we dislike and add something else we do like, we will finally reach happiness. I am not sure that is the case, I think the only way we can reach happiness, I mean core happiness, is recognizing what is most important to us.
To me at the end of the day what is most important to me is spending time with my loved ones. Of course, the work I do is important and makes me feel alive, but I am nothing without the support of those around me. I am slowly finding that balance is something I will keep working on and that balance looks different for everyone.
I am realizing that sometimes balance doesn’t look like juggling multiple tasks and handling them all beautifully. Sometimes balance means juggling multiple tasks and handling them to the best of your ability, even if it is messy. Sometimes balance means just putting pen to paper and working through your emotions. Sometimes balance looks like saying no. Sometimes balance looks like taking a break and doing absolutely nothing. Sometimes balance looks like making a mistake and having to trust in yourself and rebuild your confidence.
This blog post never served the purpose of solving your problems with balance. It was to remind you and remind myself that life really is like a seesaw, sometimes we go up, and sometimes we go down. And if we work really hard we can find that balance. I’m not sure if you remember the last time you were on a real seesaw, but the most fun parts of being on it are when you are going up and down over and over. Basically what I am trying to say is that, balance is difficult, but even though we often don’t realize it in the moment, the ups and downs of life, are where the magic, growth and life happen.
We will keep going up and down together and find strength in what is core to us and our happiness in order to help us find that balance a little bit more. Whatever you love to do, I hope you find the time to do that activity a bit more today and every day on your travels to whatever balance looks like for you.
Balance is definitely possible to obtain, but let’s enjoy the ride on our journey there. We are worthy of that.
Xo,
Be Beautifully Simply You