Matt was teaching me how to ride the moped the other day and I was realizing I need to have better balance. Much better balance! Rachelle and Melissa had better balance at age 5 as you can see above! I need to get better balance not only physically, but in every other way- emotionally, mentally, financially.
Balance is a really hard thing for me. I get stuck on a project, like a blog for instance, and that’s all I think about. As a mom, I know that doesn’t work out so hot. I can put off eating for hours, but the kids not so much. So I am constantly finding myself trying to balance everything in my life. Work, mom, wife, cleaning, cooking, blogging and I am even finding out I should include playing. I have never played much before. I will put reading as my play because I lose track of time while I’m doing it. Oh gosh that may throw everything into playing- I lose time when I ‘m at the kids soccer games, cooking, looking at instagram or other social media. I even lose track of time when I am making Glow Dough. Luckily I have alarms on my phone that tell me when I need to do something. My favorite is a 10pm it rings and says “go to bed.” Usually I can’t believe it is 10:00 already!
Balance for me can also be in eating. This includes when I eat and what I eat. Matt and I did a cleanse at the beginning of the year and I learned I can totally survive on veggies, fruit and rice. Imagine that! If you want to learn how to get creative with all kinds of veggies- try a cleanse. We learned a lot. I am the type of person that wants healthy food if given a choice. That is a learned behavior because if I get up and eat a brownie (like my husband and kids do sometimes) I get sick. I have learned brownies for breakfast= sick tummy. So I don’t do it. The pain is not worth the pleasure. For some unlucky or lucky people, however you see it, they can eat whatever they want for breakfast and their tummy doesn’t scream at them. Their balance with foods may need to be more mental.
Balance and exercise. When I was 22, I just had a baby and I had a pain in my back and hips. Some days the pain would be so bad I could not walk, but the next day the pain could be gone. For 9 years I was misdiagnosed which I am sure was completely my fault because I rarely went to a doctor. In 2000 I went to a doctor because I had been sick for another reason and after 9 long months we got to the bottom of it- I had arthritis. Ankylosing Spondylitis. I started doing yoga and it changed my life. I learned balance physically and mentally. I learned to listen to my body. I knew what foods I was craving and ate them- at the first it was hamburgers everyday! I think my body needed that protein or something in that food. Then it went to salads. Now I really try to focus and listen to my body. Not always easy! Yoga helped me become pain free and I learned how to deal with stress. Breathe- that was huge for me. It sounds funny as I write that. I learned to breathe! Yes breathe deep!
So now I challenge myself to listen to my body better and try to have some sort of balance in my life. It is a process. I know I will never be completely balanced, but I will practice to see if I can bet better at it! Let me try that motorcycle!