Believe it or not, balance is a naturally occurring state. Something either balances or it doesn’t. It flows or it doesn’t. Making something balanced by brute force will never work, because when the force is gone so is the balance.

If we try to force balance in our lives we are never able to relax. We become exhausted and our forced balance begins to slip. We feel ‘out of balance’ and we go looking for tools, techniques and coaches to teach us how to manhandle things back into a forced balance.

We have all done it. I know I used to. I sense that something was consuming too much energy and pulling me off centre so I would work extra hard, ‘fire myself up’ in the hope of creating more energy or try to prop everything else up.

We feel we are not spending enough time with our friends. It would help to spend a leisurely afternoon and spending quality, restorative and refreshing time with a friend. Instead we over schedule ourselves trying to catch up with everybody in the same weekend. Or we feel like work is taking over our life so we do more overtime believing if we work super-duper-ridiculous hours we will get on top of it. All we end up doing is working more, and finding more work to do. The ‘on top of it’ moment never comes.

So what other choices do we have? We could quiet the noise, cease the busyness and just listen for a moment. Listen to what you really want to do next. You see when we feel off kilter we usually have a deeply hidden desire. Your intuition is whispering the ideal counterbalance. A yearning so simple we most often dismiss it. An unpretentious pleasure, easily achieved. If you tune in & act on the quiet voice the outcome is remarkable; instant balance.

Some of the small indulgences that have saved my sanity in the past include:

1. A pot of peppermint tea
2. Fine dark chocolate
3. A walk along the beach
4. Old movies
5. Reading a great book
6. Journaling
7. A sleep in
8. A day at the Museum
9. A good cry
10. Putting my feet up
11. Singing at the top of my lungs
12. Buying fresh flowers
13. Sitting in the park under a tree
14. Hiding in a secluded café for an hour
15. A weekend away

A girlfriend I caught up with recently named pedicures as one of her balance inducing activities.

None of these are goal orientated activities. In and of themselves they don’t  actually achieve anything. That is the key. You don’t create a balanced environment ripe for producing results by being results focused all the time. You have to play as hard as you work.

My small indulgences create space for me to stop ‘doing’ and just ‘be’. They break the cycle of craziness long enough for me to breathe. After a breath and a moment of real ‘me-ness’ my natural balance bubbles up to the surface and I can move on with more grace.

Now when I feel off balance I take my foot off the gas instead of flooring it.