Work Life Juggling: What Keeps You Balanced?

 As I wrote , I no longer believe that balancing "work" on the one hand and "life" on the other is enough. Because too often "life" really refers to family (think spouse, kids, relatives) and housework, and what gets lost is our ability to care for ourselves -- physicially, emotionally, and spiritually.

So I posed the question -- what do you need to feel balanced?

It's a good question, I think, because in the tumult of our daily lives, a lot of us don't stop to think, "what do I need to feel good?" We think about what we need to get our work done; what we need to do to care for our families; what we need to do to maintain our homes; and, perhaps, what we need to do to fulfill our volunteer obligations...but what we need to do to feel well? balanced? healthy? calm?

That tends to go by the wayside.

So I'm going to challenge you to sit down and write a list of what your life would include if you could do whatever you needed to do every day to take care of yourself. It may be exercise, a nap, yoga,  30 minutes to read the newspaper -- uninterrupted, a walk in the woods, coffee or beer with a friend, sex, or a full eight hours of sleep. It may be watching a football game on TV or going for a long bike ride. It doesn't really matter what it is. Just write it down.

(My own list, for those of you curious, is: eight hours of sleep, exercise, three healthy meals, and a chance to either meditate or do yoga.)