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Seven Principles for Living in Balance
FOR THOSE OF you who follow my column you may notice how I cover subjects on color, Feng Shui, self preservation and Space Clearing. I am a firm believer that if we pay attention to our environment, especially where we live and work, we will improve our focus, stick to our goals and live a more stress-free life. These articles do not minimize the state of the economy and the impact it has had on jobs, but they may provide ideas to mitigate the feelings of defeat and utter fear of what is happening around you. If you took some of this information and applied it on a regular basis it will amaze you how much life will become simpler and easier to handle.
This month I am taking the Seven Principles for Living in Balance from the book, Living in Balance written by Joel and Michelle Levey. This couple provides retreats in the San Juan Islands up in the Northwest and  has a following of like-minded people who want to “trim away the fat” in their lives and reduce stress. I hope some of these principles will help you to improve your own life and to not only remove frustrations but help you to succeed where you are feeling failure. These seven elements each speak to living with both a high quality of awareness and a deeper sense of compassion and caring. Under stress we tend to get tense in mind and body. Our awareness narrows and constricts. We can meditate, relax, and actually expand our thinking and awareness to encompass and see clearly the reality of the whole situation that we are in the midst of.
Seven Principles for Living in Balance
Attitude: If your glass is always half empty and you feel you are a victim of whatever is happening in your external world, then the Universe will bring in more challenges. In the Law of Attraction, we basically attract what we put our thoughts into. So surround yourself with happy, upbeat people and try not to always complain about what is going wrong in your life. Live in gratitude and reflect on all the good things that are happening in your life.
Accountability: People who live generally in balance focus on what they can do and don’t spend their energy spinning their wheel or getting tied up in knots over what is outside their control. They take responsibility for their problems and work to find a solution or to look for positive change. A wiser, more balanced approach is to focus attention on those aspects of our life, work, environment, and relationships that we can better learn from, influence, or even control. This allows ourselves to better understand and appreciate the large mysterious forces that are too complex to feel much control over.
Commitment: Balanced people live and work with a strong sense of purpose. They view themselves as having a meaningful role to fulfill and hold a strong inner belief in its importance. Commitment brings balance by giving more focus and clarity of purpose to your life. When you know what you are committed to, you’ll be better able to set and stick to priorities, to recognize and honor limits, and to live with integrity. Practice forming and writing affirmations of ways to improve your life.
Supportive Relationships: We are all social beings who thrive on meaningful, caring, and affirming contact with others. One striking example of the importance of supportive relationships in our lives is the fact that health risk factors for a person who is lonely are far greater than for a person who smokes, drinks, eats a poor diet and doesn’t get exercise! People who have supportive networks of close relatives and friends do much better in handling life’s stresses.
Personal Mastery: People who understand the importance of personal development and who have cultivated a high degree of self-mastery are the ones most able to sail through challenging times with confident balance. They’ve learned to deeply listen and respond skillfully to the subtle whispers that warm them when they are drifting out of balance. By recognizing and reducing the harmful accumulations of stress, they are able to live in a more balanced and more disease-resistant way. They are better equipped to maintain optimal energy levels throughout the day. This will bring a higher degree of self-confidence, self-control, self-acceptance, and self-respect.
Faith: A spiritual outlook toward life is common among people who live in balance. People with a deep spiritual perspective often say that it is their faith that helps them to see their lives within a larger perspective and gives them a sense of belonging to a greater whole. Faith allows us to reach out and take refuge in our connectedness to a larger, deeper reality and Source than our tiny personal selves.
Service: We all know how good we feel when we do something to help others. Each time we do, we tap the energy of love and compassion that is fundamental to life. Many people have discovered that making time in their lives to be of service to others provides a quality of joy and satisfaction which is deeply renewing. We continue to learn more and more about balance by realizing that in serving the needs of others from a selfless place of caring and connectedness, many of our deepest needs can also be fulfilled.
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The above article is the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of Vegas Community Online, its editors/publishers, and/or other Vegas Community Online columnists. VCO respects the right of each author to express their opinion. If you have an opposing viewpoint or would like to send feedback on any article, please send email to feedback@vegascommunityonline.com; state the title of the article and your comments. VCO reserves the right to add any submissions to its feedback page.
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