Work/Life Balance – Zen Breeds Focus

We have all heard the buzz words of late – Mindfulness, Meditation and if you watch anything on you tube “the lap top lifestyle” which involves people showing you (from exotic locations) how lovely their wife/life is mixed with “look at my toys” garb… uuugghhh! Give me a break!

Where is it all going? – well its all about balance, being happy and reducing stress. and sometimes it all needs to be taken away before we realise we don’t actually need it. This can happen via divorce, chronic illness and the loss of a job as a few examples.

Work excessively long hours to earn money to buy stuff that really you don’t need? Taking on more and more work so that you can pretend that you having a fulfilling life, which is actually something that you are really missing from your relationships. I’ve seen it in my clients and experienced it myself first hand!

Is this a result of working too much as a distraction from your unhappiness, never saying “NO” when you should in and not putting your phone away and focusing on the present? We are all guilty of that.

An exercise that I find interesting is looking at the photos on your phone – what do you take pictures of the most? That’s where your passion lies! That’s what you are afraid to lose the most!

What to do? The simple act of writing down what is the most important to you and focusing on that is a start. It may be your job, but think about your life if you suddenly lost that job. Who would be there for you?

Identifying what you can get rid of (toxic relationships, that group that annoys you on fb, that pile of junk in the garage) and just do it!

Take the leap.

The third task is to meditate! It really does work, when your mind is quiet you open up an energetic portal for new and innovative ideas and intuitive insight. Start with a guided meditation. Learn about 5 minute meditation – which you can do while waiting for the bus, in the shower, when you first wake (hot tip – sit up or you will probably just head back to lala land). All you need is 15 minutes a day 🙂

If you find it hard to meditate – go for a walk with no devices. The beach works for me, the waves and the sand on bare feet. You can try a large park (ideally with trees), even a walk around the block. Anywhere that you can be in nature.

Check out this article that cites many studies and techniques for Meditation https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4895748/