I have recently joined the most fabulous Pilates class. Our wonderful, intuitive instructor has an innate ability to spot areas of weakness and help us tweak postures and positions to target key muscles.
It is hard work, physically and mentally rejuvenating and I love it.
And every week comes with a new revelation of a part of my body that is tight, weak, or unbalanced.
What is the cost of unbalanced living? This is what I started musing on last time.
I used to work as a physiotherapist (physical therapist) and have helped countless patients re-learn how to walk after injury or surgery. Just as unbalanced walking comes with costs, so too are there costs of unbalanced living.
We lose sight of where we are going.
Relearning to walk after injury is a hard, slow and painful process. When our balance is not good, and we are carrying an injury, it can be all too easy to focus our energy and efforts on the ground, on what is directly in front of us as we try and prevent a fall.
So too with our lives. Without a sense of purpose, vision and direction, it can be hard to maintain the momentum required to keep going through life. This cost of unbalanced living comes at a high price.
This will vary from season to season of course, and is not necessarily about creating a magnificent 10 year plan for your life. But it is helpful to stop and ask ourselves questions.
What really matters to me? What would it mean for this year to be a really good year? Who do I want to be known as in this life season, and what do I want to be doing?
Vision, clear perspective and a sense of direction help us keep looking forward.
Parts of us become overused and fatigued.
Without time to rest, regroup and recover, we can easily burn out. More on burnout here. We are used to operating at a constantly busy pace, sometimes even wearing our ‘busy’ label like some kind of badge of honour. Ask someone how they are today and you might well get a version of ‘busy’ as a response.
Life is busy. That is a fact. We are juggling lots of different roles and responsibilities. But two things are worth considering here when we stop and look at our power of choice.
Margins and energy drainers.
Do we have enough margin in our lives to deal with unexpected situations? Are we tolerating things that drain our energy and rob us of life? What can we stop doing, or let go of for this season? Are there things we can delegate? If we do a stock take of our lives, as I was musing last time, what becomes apparent?
Where do we use most of our time?
There will be many things over which we have no control. But where we do have control, it is worth stopping to notice that we have far more power than we realise.
What am I saying yes and no to this week, and what is the cost of that?
Parts of us become weak and wasted away.
This is another outcome of long term unbalanced walking. If you have ever had an injury to a lower limb or your back, and continue to walk, you will very quickly discover how interconnected our bodies are. If we are unable to use a leg normally, our muscles very quickly waste, become lengthened and weak or shortened and tight.
T
he analogies to our lives are clear. How easy is it for us to lose sight of aspects of our own selves when we live unbalanced?
What do you do for fun? What does that over used term self care mean to you? Which aspects of your own life are feeling neglected and potentially wasting away? Where does rest, relaxation, recharging fit into your life? Relationships are an important part of this, having life giving and emotionally safe people that we connect with.
This is all food for thought, which is what I like to do.
This week, notice what parts of your life feel overworked and weary. And notice too where there might be areas that are neglected and out of practice. What one small change can you make?
And if you identify that the cost of unbalanced living for you is now too high, and this has prompted you to take more committed action, get in touch for your FREE taster session. We can explore together how to restore and regain the balance in your life you want.