Balancing Technique

Are there days when you just feel like standing up and shaking off all the negativity? Or you just want to go in a corner far away from everyone and everything? I’ve had those days when life just felt like it was destroying me. Days when everyone seemed to be going against me and nothing seemed to be working out.

For some people life seems to be very easy and they seem to have everything going for them. Then there are some individuals who could use a little luck in their lives.

There are many days when I just want to start fresh because I know what I would do differently. It seems that if I took the knowledge and lessons I have learned now back to my teens and twenties, I could have prevented many worries and negative thoughts from taking place. To remain sane and not feel overwhelmed, I have found a technique that seems to work for me.

At first I would do this 3-4 times a day but now I do it once a week or when I really need to. It is my balancing technique to feed my need for control and perfection. You will find similar suggestions in many websites because that is where I first started looking and then I molded the idea to fit my life and thoughts (e.g. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_93.htm).

In this technique, I have just added more categories of what I value and in a way it has become an obsession with me…but it shows me that I have purpose and my life has purpose. It shows me that I have had some accomplishments in my life.

I was not one of those people who knew what I was good at from a young age; I learned through many failures and never giving up on me. I have learned over time to accept who I am and that if I focus on me and improving a certain aspect of my life; things do change for the better.

I have been able to divide my life into sections. These are my categories:

HEALTH – BEAUTY

SPIRITUALITY – FAMILY – FRIENDS

HOBBIES – INTERESTS

EDUCATION – CAREER(S) – SOCIAL WORK

MATERIALISTIC GAINS – FINANCE

RISKS – CULTURE

These are sections of my life that are important to me, I am not saying that there is any part of my life that is not important. But, these categories are what I want to focus on or improve more of in my life. I feel that I might be lacking in some way in these sections and hence the reason why I am looking for balance in the first place. You could have more or less categories depending on what is important to you.

Within each category I write what I have accomplished and then in a different color, what I want to accomplish. This actually helps me see things with a better perception of my life as a whole. As human beings we tend to think negative or worst first. This is why we might remember our failures or what we want to achieve in life rather than what we have and where we are in life. This technique makes you realize that life is not just that particular problem you are dealing with. Life is a lot bigger and things are not as bad as they may seem at that moment.

There is one drawback that I’m realizing of this technique, it makes you look at your life in compartments rather than as an overall journey. You have to remember that this technique was applied so that life didn’t seem overwhelming. This technique helps you see that you are more than your failures or wants. However, you have to realize too that all aspects of life are interlinked and that you are more than what you wrote on paper.

Life is different for each individual and everyone has his/her own way of making sense of it. This is a technique that helps me see that my life is more positive than the negativity in my mind. I don’t use this as a summary of who I am or my life – it works like chocolate or Starbucks mocha, it is a “lift-me upper”.