Jugglers make it look so easy, tossing one ball after another up in the air —but juggling work, family, and life’s responsibilities, isn’t always as easy. Trying to find balance in our fast-paced, hectic lives can leave us feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and emotionally taxed. This can wreak havoc on our bodies, minds, and spirits leading to premature aging as well as weakening our immune systems and setting ourselves up for ill health.
Being true to ourselves, finding more pleasure in simple things, having a close-knit group of friends and family, and living our lives in balance can add many happy years to our lives.
The Following Tips Have an Extremely Positive Impact on Your Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Health:
1. Be True to Yourself
Being true to you is all about being your authentic self, embracing and accepting yourself, imperfections and all. Learning to love yourself is the first step. How do you expect others to love you, if you don’t love yourself? Self love is not about having a big ego or being conceited, it’s about feeling good about yourself, your strengths, and your accomplishments. It’s really about valuing the person you truly are.
Just Be Yourself – Many people wander through life, never really knowing their true authentic selves or their potential. Be honest with yourself—be open about your wants, your needs, your desires and your goals. Just be yourself. We all have the capabilities to be generous or selfish, loving or hateful. It’s up to us to choose which characteristics we want to nurture or not.
Stop Judging – We live in a highly judgmental society. We judge our friends, neighbors, co-workers, celebrities, politicians, and even random people around us. More so than that, we judge ourselves. Judging ourselves and others can only foster negativity. We must move beyond that and be more accepting of ourselves and other people.
Embrace Your Imperfections – None of us are perfect, nor should we want to be. Learn to be comfortable in your skin, flaws and all. If your flaws are holding you back from personal growth, work on them. But, don’t try to be someone you’re not, or compare yourself to others. We’ve all got certain things we like and don’t like about ourselves. Focus on your personal attributes and celebrate your uniqueness. Be genuine, follow your heart, and your passions, and listen to your inner-voice. Think positive, believe in yourself, and stand up for what you believe in.
2. Create Balance in Your Life
Sometimes we get so caught up in our busy day to day lives, that our lives literally spin out of control, leaving us feeling totally out of balance. The key to achieving a well-balanced life is about prioritizing. It’s about integrating and aligning the most important components in our lives.
Create a Pie Chart of Your Life – This a great visual tool that may help get your life in balance. Section off the various areas of your life like: family, work, health and fitness, social life, recreation, hobbies, God, spiritual growth, etc. This way you can visually see if your life priorities are being met. Next, make a second chart with how you want your life to be. Now you can focus on what changes need to be made to realign your life and get your life in balance.
Life is a Balancing Act – If you’re working too much, or putting too much focus on certain areas of your life and ignoring others, it will eventually catch up with you. Make it a point to schedule time with family and friends, and make time for activities that nurture you and help you recharge.
Restore Harmony – Finding balance can reduce stress while restoring harmony in your life. If your life is out of balance, examine your priorities and make the necessary changes. Help restore your body’s natural healing potential by taking the time and effort to focus on the things in life that bring you fulfillment and happiness.
3. Find Pleasure Daily
There are the universal pleasures like food, sex, and companionship. But for the most part, we are not really experiencing as much pleasure as we could be in our daily lives. We live in a fast-paced society, where we’re all moving at warp-speed, with ridiculously long to-do lists. We need to relearn to connect with ourselves and others. It’s important to find some time every day to search for things that bring us sheer joy and pleasure. That goes hand in hand with being present in our lives, and mindfully paying attention to what’s going on around us.
Pleasure Awakens the Senses – What makes you smile? What brings you joy or stirs feelings of passion? Renew your sense of wonder. Tap into that sense of wonder you had as a child.
Add Music to Your Daily Life – Music is one of our greatest all-time pleasures. While most of us enjoy listening to music—did you know that music affects our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors? Research shows that music has a profound impact on your health and psyche. Music can be relaxing or energizing, and can deeply affect us physically and emotionally. Listening to our favorite songs boosts our brain health, while reducing stress, anxiety, chronic pain, and depression.
Music is Food for the Soul… A daily dose of your favorite music is not only extremely pleasurable, but can boost your immune system, resulting in less illness, and can add years to your life.
Bottom Line: Reconnect with the people and things that give you pleasure, enjoyment, and meaning—and live your life with zest and gusto! Shed those nagging feelings of pessimism. Be kind to yourself and others, and make a decision to live with joy, happiness, and optimism.
4. Make Self-Care a Top Priority
Self-care is all about personal care maintenance—making time for ourselves—mind, body, and spirit. How well we treat ourselves reflects on our overall health and well-being, as well as our life span. Self-care is not about self-indulgence—self-care is about choosing positive, self-compassionate, self-nurturing behaviors that balance our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
Implement Self-Care Into Your Life – Self-care starts with taking care of our physical selves—our teeth, hair, and skin as well as a daily routine of eating healthy foods, getting proper rest, getting exercise, practicing meditation, abstaining from substance abuse, and pursuing creative outlets. A well-nourished mind, body, and spirit is vital for high self-esteem, emotional balance, consistent energy, and overall enjoyment of life.
Don’t Slack Off When it Comes to Your Appearance – Many times in our busy fast-paced lives we don’t take (or make) the time to make our physical self-care a top priority. Every aspect of our appearance, as well as our personal hygiene and grooming shows the world what and who we are. Feeling good about our appearance comes from within. Having a well cared for body not only makes you feel good and projects confidence, but conveys to others that you value and respect yourself.
Smile More to Improve Health and Attractiveness – We are naturally drawn to people who smile. People who smile exude confidence. Smiling naturally releases endorphins, boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure, and relieves stress.
A Good Reason to Whiten Your Smile – If you want to take years off your appearance—whiten and brighten your teeth. As we age, the enamel on our teeth becomes thinner and more transparent, causing the teeth to look darker. A dazzling smile not only makes you look more attractive, but can make you look and feel years younger, more vibrant, and more confident.
Don’t Forget to Pamper Yourself – Take some well-deserved time to rest, relax, and rejuvenate your mind, body, and soul. Treat yourself to a spa day or a relaxing massage. But don’t wait for a special occasion to pamper yourself—take some time for yourself every day.
Bottom Line: Improve your physical, mental, and emotional health by taking responsibility for your own well being and by making choices to promote self-care.
5. Listen to Your Body and Soul
Listening to your body’s internal messages is vital for maintaining good health and anti-aging. Sometimes we lose connection with the most fundamental signals of life, the internal information that speaks to us through various bodily sensations and emotions. It’s time to wake up and become conscious of not only our body, but our mind and spirit, as well. It’s all about learning to pay attention and using awareness and deep intuition to make smart choices about our health and well-being.
Are You Really Listening? How often do you ignore your body’s basic needs? Do you eat when you are hungry and stop eating when you’ve had enough? Do you get as much sleep as you need or rest when you are tired? How often do you listen to your gut instinct? Our body sends out cues—some subtle, others are loud and practically scream at us.
Tap Into Your Intuition – If you’re not in tune with your body, it may take some practice at first—but if your health and happiness is a priority, it’s vital to listen to, and honor your body’s needs. By taking the time to focus and really pay close attention to what your body, as well as your intuition is trying to tell you—you will become more connected and balanced in all aspects of your life.
How Well Do You Really Know Yourself? It’s a question many of us struggle with. Knowing yourself means knowing your interests, behaviors, qualities, passions, values, beliefs, hopes, fears, strengths, weaknesses, tolerances, limitations, idiosyncrasies, and your purpose in life. It seems like a no-brainer—after all, who spends more time with ourselves than we do? But truly knowing ourselves can be difficult and takes a conscious effort.
Observe Yourself – Start by observing yourself and your behavior as objectively as possible—as if you’re seeing yourself through the eyes of other people—much like looking in a mirror. Self-observation prompts you to pay closer attention and to be more aware of your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and reactions.
Make a List – Write down all the things you know best about yourself— your likes and dislikes, your interests and passions, your unique gifts and talents, your dreams and goals, etc. Creating a list of your personal attributes (negative and positive) is an important aspect in the process of discovering your own individuality.
Keep a Personal Journal – Journaling is a great way to chronicle your day and get to know yourself better. Writing down your thoughts, feelings, ideas, and desires is not only cathartic, but is a wonderful tool for self-discovery and self-realization.
Personality Quiz’s – The internet is a great place to find hundreds of free personality tests and quizzes. By taking these tests, you can discover your personality type, as well as some important facets of your personality.
Bottom Line: As you begin your journey to self-discovery and growing self-knowledge, you’ll grow more and more in touch with yourself. You’ll likely find that you’re able to make better decisions, you’ll make more positive lifestyle choices, and ultimately find more meaning and purpose in life.
6. Discover Your Life’s Calling
According to a recent survey, roughly 75% of people do not know what their true calling is. Whether you call it your life’s purpose or your life’s calling, each and every one of us is a unique individual with certain talents and gifts. Unfortunately, most people meander through life never really discovering their life’s calling. If you’re at a crossroads and don’t know which way to turn, do some deep soul searching.
Find Purpose, Direction, and Meaning – What do you love to do in your spare time? What ignites the passion in your heart and soul? Make a list of all the things you’re good at, and the things you love to do like reading, writing, singing, dancing, painting, playing sports, or maybe playing a musical instrument. What kinds of things resonate deep within you?
Whistle While You Work – The things you love to do are directly related to your calling. It’s about choosing a way of life that is consistent with your passions, desires, and personal gifts. Once you discover your life’s purpose, try to find a way of making a living doing what you love, and working will never feel like work again.
7. Learn Something New Every Day
Make learning something new a part of your daily routine. Whether it’s learning an interesting fact or as challenging as learning a new language or musical instrument, the simple practice of learning deepens our character and makes us more confident.
We are All Learning Creatures – Surf the internet—type in something you’ve always wanted to know. Read, whether it’s the morning newspaper, a magazine, a book, or whatever. Reading the newspaper keeps you up to date on what’s going on in the world and magazines usually contain all sorts of useful information on various topics. Watch educational television—the History channel, Animal Planet, and National Geographic. There is a lot of information on these channels.
Stay Interested and Interesting – We are all creatures of habit. Good or bad, we all have habits. While a familiar territory or environment may feel like a comfortable place to be, many times we get stuck in a rut. By being open to trying new things, it keeps life fresh and exciting. There are many benefits that come from viewing life with an open mind. Approaching life with a sense of curiosity, keeps you open to new experiences and opportunities. Opening your mind, heart, eyes, ears, and soul, teaches you so much more about life and the world we live in. By staying interested and interesting, you’ll be amazed how enriched and fulfilling your life can be.
8. Arouse & Nurture Your Passions
We all have a basic need to feel passionate about something. Whether it’s about your relationships, music, hobbies, your job, your pet(s), or whatever… Passion is a very powerful emotion. Passion is something that drives you emotionally. You know when you’re passionate about something when you can’t stop talking about it, or you get excited just thinking about it.
Ask Yourself Some Important Questions – It’s important to nurture your passions from your heart and soul. What piques your interest? Is there something that you love to do? What sparks your creativity? Do you have a special hobby, or was there something you loved doing as a child?
Make a Bucket List – Coming from the term “kick the bucket,” create a list of things you’d like to do before you die. Do you have a list of goals you’d like to achieve or any life-experiences or inner-passions you’d like to fulfill?
Express Your Passions – Most importantly, make sure you express passion for the things in life that truly matter—your kids, your spouse, your friends, and your pet(s). Sometimes we’re so preoccupied with life in general, that we take our family and relationships for granted. Take the time to foster loving, trusting relationships. In the end, what’s more important, knowing you gave and received love and made the most of your life, or sitting around with a big pile of meaningless stuff?
9. Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
Change can be scary. Your comfort zone is a comfortable place to be, because you know it’s safe and predictable. On the other hand, your comfort zone may be limiting you to all sorts of life’s possibilities. You could be missing out on love, financial opportunities, and a whole lot of fun. Yes, it’s a little intimidating to take a risk, but sometimes we just need to face our fears and jump in. Take baby steps if you have to. When you break free of your comfort zone, you’re opening up your mind to new experiences.
Embrace Change – Exploring the unknown can be a frightening experience, but it can also bring you a world of passion, excitement, new friends, and new adventures. Without change, you may be missing out on some of life’s greatest pleasures.
Don’t Let Fear Control You – If fear of the unknown is holding you back from the life you truly desire—realize there are no guarantees in life. None of us know what is around the next corner. By overcoming fear of the unknown, we remove a huge mental obstacle, allowing us to develop as a person, while building a better life in the process.
Where the Magic Happens – If you find you are paralyzed by fear of the unknown or uncertainty, just realize that the unknown may be a better, more positive place and may actually make you a happier, healthier person. Overcoming something that terrifies us can truly be mentally liberating.
10. Adjust Your Attitude
Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. People often create chaos and stress in their lives through their own negative, self-defeatist, and worrisome attitudes. By simply adjusting our attitudes and realizing that we are in charge of how we react to any given situation, we can quite literally transform our lives. Many of our problems aren’t caused by bad luck or other people, we create them within our own minds.
Stop Jumping to Conclusions – We’ve all been guilty of making assumptions or jumping to conclusions at one time or another. We develop an opinion about someone or something, before getting all the facts—and to make matters worse—we often times jump to conclusions in a negative way. But, if you think about it, this kind of thinking is irrational. We are not mind-readers or fortune tellers. Learn to bite your tongue, ask more questions, and weigh all the facts first. This will lead to fewer misunderstandings, less conflicts, and better relationships.
Stop Being Such a Perfectionist – Perfectionism is just an illusion. Nobody and nothing in life is perfect. Stop wasting precious time and energy trying to attain the unattainable. Just try to do your best, and be the best you can be. Imperfection can be a beautiful thing.
Let Go of the Past – For many of us, much of the anger, frustration, and misery we feel in our lives is directly correlated to past hurts or painful events that we can’t let go of. Many people carry the past around with them like a big ball and chain, reliving and rehashing painful memories and heartache over and over again in their minds. When you obsess over the past, it festers, and slowly kills your spirit. Letting go of the past can free you to create the life you desire. Do not waste the short, precious time you have here on earth worrying about the things you cannot change.
Stop Sweating the Trivial Stuff – By learning to let go of the past and accepting the way things are, having realistic expectations, looking at the big picture, recognizing you do have a choice, and keeping a positive attitude—you will ultimately release the chains that bind you and you’ll be able to open your heart to peace, happiness, and serenity. Learning to stop worrying about the things you have no control over, and instead learning to live with acceptance, is one of the most powerful gifts you can give to yourself and others. Make it a priority to embrace love, happiness, compassion, forgiveness, and gratitude. Changing your attitude can quite simply change your entire life.
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