Living a Balanced Life

 “May you live all the days of your life.”

Jonathan Swift

             Our physical and mental well-being is dependent on a healthy balance between work and play. We need to incorporate a variety of healthy activities that bring us relaxation, amusement and recreation into our everyday lives to sustain our moods and to foster our creativity. Perhaps we can bring back things we used to find pleasurable. We can explore a variety of activities such as taking a warm bath, reading for pleasure, getting together with friends and family, gardening, and playing games. Perhaps we can explore some interests alone and try some with others. Predict how pleasurable an event will be on a one to five scale and then rate how pleasant it was afterward. We may be surprised that the latter was higher than expected. Don’t feel bad if activities are not as fun as they used to be. This will change. Avoid violence concerning the media; movies, videos, television that may trigger unpleasant feelings. Incorporating more fun activities into our life will nourish us spiritually, emotionally, physically, and intellectually. 

It doesn’t have to involve big steps.  For example, perhaps you like to watch action movies. Try watching something humorous. Go bowling if you have never bowled before. Seek a way to volunteer in your community and meet new people. Join a gym, the list can go on and on. Being busy and meeting new people can help us with being able to forgive those who caused harm to us. Those who caused us harm are not going to be that important if we are busy doing the things we enjoy.

We often tend to feel more balanced when we are doing both necessary and fun activities.  Under periods of great stress and demands, we may give up recreational activities. We can lose balance, falling into the habit of only doing what is necessary. If we do this long enough, we may even forget what it felt like to have fun. Participating in pleasurable activities can reverse this cycle. As we begin to do things that are enjoyable, we will begin to feel happier. We will feel more active, interested and confident. Maintaining reasonable levels of enjoyable activities assists us with preventing a bad mood.  Part of establishing new routines is establishing an awareness of how we plan our lives. We can develop a better understanding of how we do so by conducting a pleasurable activities schedule. The following exercise will help us discover or rediscover what activities are pleasurable for us. 

Step 1:  Develop a list of activities including: 

·         Social Interactions: Spending time with individuals that bring out the best in us.

·         Activities that make us feel capable, loving, useful, strong, and/or adequate: 

·         Activities that are somewhat challenging such as volunteer work, starting a new job, exercising, and budgeting.

·         Intrinsically Pleasant Activities:  Examples of these activities include relaxing, listening to good music, and hobbies.

Step 2:  Notice if there are many items we enjoyed in the past that we are not currently doing.

Step 3:  Establish a written plan to do more pleasant activities. Start with the simplest activities and the ones we are most likely to enjoy. Try doing at least one enjoyable activity a day, perhaps more on the weekends. We can write our plan on a calendar, and carry out this written plan for at least two weeks. Each time we do an activity rate it on a one to five scale for pleasure (five being highly enjoyable). Perhaps we can replace less enjoyable activities with others. 

            Play is for everybody.  It helps us quench our thirst for exploration and it challenges us physically and intellectually. It can improve our health, relieves stress, strengthens our connection with friends, family, and our community, and it clearly enhances our life satisfaction. Additional research proven psychological benefits of play include:

·         A sense of freedom, and independence.

·         Better ability to socialize with others.

·         Greater adaptability and resiliency.

·         Improved sense of humor.

·         Heightened creative capabilities. 

·         Enhanced sense of self-worth, and self-confidence.

·         More balanced competitiveness and a more positive outlook on life. 

·         Enriched team membership abilities.

Balance is important in all areas of our life. All work and no play makes for a dull person. 

Also, all play and no work leads to a dead end. Certain barriers such as negative thoughts

and guilt can interfere with having fun. If we feel guilty about the past or feel that we should be doing something work oriented, we need to remind ourselves that prolonged guilt helps no one, and that work becomes more efficient after a period of rest and recreation. Our physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual well-being is contingent on living a balanced life, one of balance concerning work, relaxation and enjoyment.