When you think about finding balance in life, do you only consider your work-life balance? You want to be able to find the time to do everything at work and home and still be happy.

Well, what if I told you that your life’s balance includes more than just scheduling between what your boss wants you to do and what your family needs you to do.

It includes balance within yourself. You have to work on your mind, body, and soul as well, to have a truly balanced life.

In the past, I had no balance within myself. I had my work-life balance down to a science, but when it came to taking care of myself, I put that on the backburner.

I became physically ill and wasn’t able to handle much in life. That’s when I realized that I needed to take a step back to see what was going on.

I had to start focusing on living a balanced life that included more than me giving everybody else what they wanted or needed.

On my journey to having more overall well-being, I learned a few things about finding balance in life and I hope these tips will help you on your journey to balance too.

Finding Balance In Life

What Does Life Balance Mean

Most of us give one part of ourselves more attention than the others.

We may focus on growing intellectually, but neglect keeping our bodies healthy. We may be vegans, vegetarians, or eat a balanced diet, but we’ve never connected with our spiritual selves.

Learning how to balance our lives may take time and it may mean different things for each person, but it can put you in a much happier, stress-free place.

When I talk about having balance in life I mean looking at your well-being collectively. You can’t have balance if you’re only working on one part of yourself.

Having balance means to be grounded in all aspects of your life. You should be able to control your emotions, take care of your health, fulfill your social needs, reflect on the person you are and areas that you wish to grow in, and be open to new ideas when they’re presented to you.

Related From Spiritual Lotus: Why a Positive Attitude Matters

Related From Spiritual Lotus: Taking a Self Care Day

Tipping the Scales in Your Favor

If you’re not sure where you need more balance in your life, think about what part of your life you feel empty in. Where have you been neglecting yourself? Where do you not feel fulfilled?

Once you figure out the area or areas that you wish to work on, then you can start making a plan as to how you want to work on them. It’s ok to work on just one area or multiple areas. It’s your choice.

You can start out taking baby steps to reach a fully balanced life by first writing down everything you believe that’s not balanced in your life.

If you feel that you don’t get enough physical activity, write that down. If you’d like to learn how to meditate to bring your spirituality into balance, put that on the list. If you just want more alone time with no distractions, jot that down too.

You can have as many things on your list as you’d like.

Now that you know what you’d like to work on, the next thing is to make time for it. Think about the stressors, distractions, and time-wasters in your life. Finding balance in your life includes removing all of these.

Are you stressed and overworked because you just can’t say no to people who want you to take on some of their responsibilities?

Are you easily distracted by focusing on other’s emotional needs and not your own?

Do you waste time by staying glued to your electronics, when you could be working on bringing balance to your life?

If so, then you need to tip the scales in order to bring them back into balance.

Creating a Balanced Life

After you’ve identified the areas of your life that you need to bring into balance and your stressors, distractions, and time-wasters, then you can really begin creating a balanced life.

Establish the goals that you’d like to reach. Since you already know which areas you want to improve upon, you can use those to set your goals.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”It’s good to reflect on the goals that you’re working towards. If you’re beginning to feel like the changes are making you a happier, calmer, more positive person, then you’re heading in the right direction.” quote=”It’s good to reflect on the goals that you’re working towards. If you’re beginning to feel like the changes are making you a happier, calmer, more positive person, then you’re heading in the right direction.”]

Once you know your goals, then you can determine the steps you’d like to take to reach those goals.

For example, your goal is to get more physically active so you can run a 5K. The tasks associated with achieving this goal can be to start by walking a quarter of a mile a day. Then you may go up to ½ mile, then a full mile. Next you’ll run 1 mile and then add a mile every couple of days or week until you reach your distance.

If your goal is to expand your mind intellectually then your tasks may include picking a subject, reading two books a month on it, attend a seminar, and joining forums pertaining to that subject.

If your goal is to reconnect with yourself spiritually, you can begin by journaling, meditating, being more mindful, learning to forgive yourself, and loving yourself for who you are now.

After you’ve implanted the tasks to achieve your goals, you should take the time out to see if you’re actually bring more balance to your life. Have you been able to stay focused on your goals? Are your goals set a little too high and you need to tweak them a little?

If so, that’s ok.

It’s good to reflect on the goals that you’re working towards. If you’re beginning to feel like the changes are making you a happier, calmer, more positive person, then you’re heading in the right direction.

Finding balance in life isn’t a perfect science. You’re not going to see changes overnight. However, you can start today or even right now by taking that first of creating a balanced life.

Once you’ve achieved your goals, keeping your life in balance will require a long-term commitment from you moving into the future.

What other techniques have you used to find balance in your life?