Moving on auto-pilot, with no time to slow down to breathe, our daily lives demand that we do everything at break-neck speed.  We try to meet the many demands of career, family, and friends, but it seems that whenever we focus on one thing that needs our attention we end up sacrificing some other important area of our lives.  Feeling out-of-sync, our spirits thirst for a greater sense of harmony and balance.

 
Balance is more about energy management than time management.  It is not necessarily the amount of time that we devote to each area that matters as much as the consistency and the quality of our energy.     

BEYOND MULTI-TASKING  

It is not important that we learn to juggle all of the important areas of our lives at the same time.  What is important is that we take the time to give each area the individual attention it deserves.  It is so much easier to juggle one ball at a time, and we are definitely more likely to succeed.  The goal is to enjoy, savor, and appreciate each situation and each moment fully and completely, to give ourselves to the present moment with abandon, resting on the knowledge that we have carved out space for the other things that are important.                  

THE POWER OF INTENTION
Perhaps the first key to a balanced life is to set a clear and strong intention.  The power of intention is miraculous.  Often, all that is needed to create a dramatic and positive change in an area of our lives is to set a clear intention of what it is we want to experience.  Setting a clear intention is more than goal setting.  It is a bold declaration of what we have defined as our reality.  It automatically recruits commitment, accountability, desire, and will, creating a magnetic field that attracts what we intend with laser-like power and speed.  Clear intentions are simple yet powerful one-sentence statements worded in positive terms. 

Begin the process of defining your intention by becoming still, then saying or writing:  "My intention is...", and completing the sentence with a statement of what it is you want to experience.  For example, you might say: 

My intention is to live a balanced life, focusing my energy and attention in those areas that matter most to me.

By stating a clear intention, you are actively deciding how you want your life to be and declaring your commitment to yourself and the Universe.    

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE
Becoming aware of the many gifts and blessings we have in our lives is a key to experiencing greater balance and happiness.  In the shaman tradition of ancient Hawaii, the secret shamanic teaching is to bless everything and everyone that represents what you wish.  In order to attract love, ancient Hawaiian shamans blessed lovebirds.  In order to attract wealth, they blessed trees full of fruit.  Similarly, blessing and giving thanks for any representation of happiness and balance is a way of attracting them to you.  Begin to pay attention to all that you have and give thanks for it.  Find something to be grateful for in every area of your life, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem.  As you focus on what you have you increase your experience of it and you become aware of how rich and blessed you really are.       

THE LIFE PIE  

Creating balance in your life is not about doing more, but about becoming aware of where you want to place your energy.  As you focus on distributing your energy and attention to provide for quality participation in each major area of your life, you begin to experience a new level of well-being and harmony.  There are seven or eight major areas of life that are considered to be essential to wholistic living and a sense of harmony.  The following exercise is a powerful tool for assessing and improving your level of inner and outer balance.  

Draw a circle or "pie" and divide it into 8 slices.  Label each slice as follows: relationships, personal/growth, spiritual/self care, health, career & money, home/environment, community, and play.  On a scale of 1-10, rate your level of participation in each piece of "pie", and mark a dot in your circle to represent this score with 1 (no participation) being closest to the center and 10 (full participation) being the outer edge of the circle.  Now join the dots and take a good look at your life pie.  Does your life pie resemble an asterisk, or does it create a beautiful symmetrical pattern at the edges of the circle? 
 
To get you started moving towards greater balance, consider the following suggestions.