★Balancing Work Dreams & Fun

…ideas related to balancing areas in your life.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts, feelings, ideas and plans in this area->balance.

Time and energy are recurring items in my affirmations and self talk. What is out of balance? I have no kids at home. I work full time but also have many other interests. Some time ago, Lee suggested turning off the television to boost productivity. So obvious, yet so often overlooked and effective. I hate to say it, but turning off the computer would also be of some benefit. Sometimes I need to tune out so that I can better feel where I am. Have I put distance between my husband and myself with too many other interests? Baaaad. Living with a positive frame of mind boosts the dreams and fun. Ideally it would make everyday tasks more meaningful and less tedious. Whuttt? Anyway, life is too dynamic to maintain balance. We must keep our hearts strong and minds open and respond or simply observe as “stuff happens.”

In order to facilitate the television being turned off, I got rid of cable tv. I only have local channels and one television set. My children understand how serious I am about the “off” button. That is how we got down to one television!! Now, they turn it off the first time I ask.

I do most of my work from home. When my kids get home from school, work is done. I do not answer the business telephone and I stay away from the work email. I am theirs for dinner & homework & bedtime ritual. It was a struggle to forget work or “turn off” when the kids came home, but it has been worth it.

We do not do a lot of extra spending that most people consider staples to modern life. However, I do use money on a housekeeper. I can keep the clutter under control, but having someone come to my house and do the mundane things such as scrub toilets, mop floors, etc frees me up for playtime on the weekends. But, I don’t spend US$100 or more each month on cable. I find the television mostly a waste of my time anyway.

My other indulgence is a very nice gym membership that I use faithfully. It has a pool, jacuzzi, steam room and sauna that are my rewards after working out. This is my “me time” that I never had before. I must admit, I never took time for myself until last November when I joined bmindful and decided to make it a priority.

My husband and I have a date night one time a week. However, we mostly don’t even go out except for once a month. We just have a babysitter that watches the kids at her house and we spend time alone at ours – in peace and quiet! Quiet time is a rarity with three kids under 9 years old, 2 cats, a dog & bird!! Quality time talk has two rules: no talking about our children or our business. Take that out of our conversation and we struggled for a while!! We actually had to get to know each other again!! We are kind of corny people. My husband will read me the poetry of Rumi or read a book written in French and then translate it into English for a discussion. I cherish these times and feel extremely close to him when we do those things. It beats vegetating in front of the “boob tube”. ((my apologies for the offensive term))

Dreams… Hmmm… I need to have those again!! I have been concentrating too much in “The Now” and haven’t been too good at planning past this summer!! Yikes… good reminder, Laurie!!

Anyways, that is my two cents…

Some of my off the cuff feelings/thoughts on the balance quest:

->Finding balance in your life is not a finite experience, it’s simply a way to steer toward.

->My feeling is there are so many aspects to our living-experience, that to not look at as many facets of our life (that make it function better)would short change life-experience.

->We have so many kinds of energies. To name some:spiritual, intellectual, physical and emotional. Consciously using these energies with the many important areas in our lives gives depth to experience.

-> When we think and do w/depth, we can work and attain almost any of our dreams.

I’m not working much these days, I gave a couple of my jobs away a month or so ago, so it’s pretty much just fixing computers, training etc right now.

I’m focusing on my dream of having land and being at peace, creating community. I made an offer on a property today, it was exhilarating and exciting :)

Am in the process of finding another career, so doing lots of research and writing business plans, working out numbers.

I’m fairly creative even in my busy times, I do a fair bit of writing, reading and have been painting a little in the last month.

I don’t feel I am unbalanced. I did feel I was doing too much work, which I fixed :)

In response to freygan’s post:
Wow! Love yout focus!

Today, I am having an “off” day. I am leaving the phone set to voicemail and I’m not reading my work email or answering the cell phone. (( don’t tell my husband )) I have my best employees handling the daily operations.

Me? I’m going to curl up with my two kitties, read a book, and take a much deserved nap. It is raining and only 35 degrees out. Perfect day to stay in bed and cuddle up.

I just got back from a personal training session and I am so wiped out, it is a struggle to type these words without falling asleep!!

When I wake up, THEN its time for taxes!! :) I haven’t forgotten them. I am just building my energy back up to deal with my baby steps. Like Laurie advised, I put the frog in the cuisinart and chopped it to little pieces so I can eat it one leg at a time!! ;)

I was reviewing things lately seeing if I had been really directed toward a “balance” . I’m going to be more conscious of this over the next few weeks, and see.

What about you guys, feeling like you’ve truly been effective in directing yourself with a sense of balance these days?

You know, Laurie, every time there is chaos in my house, there is chaos in my life. I was noticing that the last week was very hectic and unproductive and has been building up.

I am a minimalist at heart and cannot take having too much “stuff”. I noticed that all the closets in my house started showing too much consumerism on my part. This weekend, I went through and downsized my bedroom closet (good timing with my husband gone – he won’t miss anything), my children’s closets & a hall closet. I have an entire mini-van stuffed from floor to ceiling with stuff for donating to charity. If I do this every three months, then it seems to re-energize the atmosphere in my house.

Now, today, I feel like I can concentrate on doing the creative side of my job. I feel the good energy flowing unimpeded through my house. Next weekend, I have to attack the dreaded bathroom closets!!! (Yikes, I have four bathrooms)