Finding Balance in a World Gone Crazy

It’s not often I find myself wide awake at 2:00 a.m. But this morning the worries of life just reached out and slapped me awake. My husband’s health (he’s awaiting a kidney transplant), making it in today’s economy, selling my mother’s farm and moving her in with us, worrying about my sister and her family, and let us never forget the condition America is in. Life is just difficult sometimes and there’s no getting around that.

I was having a conversation with my 14-year old niece yesterday who was quite put out that she was going to have to babysit her brothers and sister while her oldest brother and mother attended multiple football camps this week. I explained to her about older siblings and babysitting and it being the natural order of things. She wasn’t buying it.

But what it all boils down to for all of us is there is a world’s fair and a state’s fair, but there is no life’s fair; never has been, and there never will be. So how do we find balance in a life that has gone topsy turvy and worries are keeping us awake at night? The answer is in a little thing I call “filling the well within.“

There’s little we can do to stop life from happening. But we can control how we respond to it. We do that by making sure we’re finding balance in our lives. We can’t live a life completely taken over by politics or we become just like the people in Washington, D.C., heaven forbid. We can’t live a life abdicating all responsibility without paying the price consequences dictate.We can’t work all the time, nor can we play all the time without both of those things come back to bite us on the butt. So here’ s a little prescription to find balance:

1) Begin and end each day with prayer.

2) Know your work hours and don’t work more than those business hours if it can at all be helped.

3) Sit down and write down all the fun things you used to do, and decide to do at least one of them a week.

 4) Organize your home life so that everything is taken care of in the home by noon on Saturday. Then head out, away from your home, and get in the sun and fresh air and have some fun!

5) Plant a garden. The hard work will be good for your body, plus it alleviates a great amount of stress, not to mention you get fresh fruit and vegetables out of the deal.

6) Go hiking, boating, camping, or fishing, but never go alone. That’s a recipe for disaster because accidents do happen. Find a pick-up basketball or football game and join in. Read a good book, or write one. Play with your kids, because the laughter of children can wipe away your worries for awhile.

7) Find a local shelter, or Habitat for Humanity, or a neighbor in need, and serve others at least once a week. You’ll be astonished at the strength that comes your way.

8) And never, ever, forget to count the blessings in your life. When we do that, we often find they far outweigh the problems.

But when it comes down to the nitty gritty of life, you have to deal with the problems at hand. Addressing your problems can be done in a variety of ways. But I like to sit down with some paper, write out the problem and then possible solutions. Once I’ve chosen the solution, I like to consider all the obstacles between Point A and Point B, then start knocking those suckers out of the way. When the time comes there is nothing more that can be done, all you can do is pray and hope for the best. Sometimes, there’s just nothing more you can do than trust it will all work out.

In equaling your “brain work” with “physical work” you’ll find you’ll be in much better shape. Now excuse me while I go take my own advice. Good luck!

* * *

Candace Salima is a an author, columnist, and public speaker and makes her home in the Rocky Mountains. Learn more about her at www.CandaceSalima.com. Follow her on Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn or Facebook.

---

Copyright 2013. All rights reserved by Candace E. Salima.