This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to see a lot of friends I had not seen for quite some time. It was great to catch up with these old friends and hear about what is going on in their lives, laugh a little and have fun. It made me pretty nostalgic actually.
It got me thinking about this balancing act called "Life." It's hard to balance. Plain and simple. I think a person that is good at balancing really knows how to take all the things that are important in his or her life and fit it all in, in a balanced way while enjoying oneself and also striving to see if one needs to add anything into this act or take anything away. It's about being healthy, physically and emotionally.
Personally, I try to balance my job, my relationships (family/friends), my boyfriend, my need to be physically active/fit and also my spirituality (i.e morals, 'giving back', improving myself, etc) into my life as best as possible. With my marathon training, I find it very difficult to fit all of these things in (even w/o marathon training actually!). Lately, especially, it has been hard to fit everything into my life. I find myself tired after long runs so sometimes my social life falls by the wayside. Because I'm "recovering," I sometimes feel like my weekend is too short. When I do get to spend time with my boyfriend or friends, sometimes I'm feeling guilty that I'm not working out or training harder and I'm not able to enjoy myself as much. When I leave my job to go to the gym, sometimes I think, "You should have stayed later, you have so much work to do" and then, because of this anxiety, I don't have a great workout. What's a girl to do to find this balance again? Or did I never really have it to begin with?
I'm not sure what the answer is for this one. All I know is that running a marathon has been on my bucket list for a while. It's something I admire of other people and it's something that I believe will push my limits and remind my body and my self that it is possible to do anything I put my mind to. That being said, I have had to and will continue to have to sacrifice some of the things that I greatly cherish, like time with friends, being active in other ways (I will not ski this winter b/c I'm afraid I'll get injured) and the feelings of "Ok, it's not a big deal if I skip a work out"...because it kind of is. I don't want to sell myself short in this experience.
I hope that, some day, I find more balance in my life then I have right now. I think that, with balance, comes a sense of inner peace and contentment and that is something I strive for on a daily basis. It's hard. Plain and simple.
How do my 13 loyal blog readers find balance? I'd love any advice. And, on a different note, I'd like to give a big, warm, fuzzy hug to my friend Patrick who completed the Hyannis Marathon yesterday in 4 hours and 17 minutes. You are an inspiration, my friend. Congrats on all your hard work.
“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.”
- Thomas Merton
This 'riddle of balance', I haven't yet solved but I can say that I find myself closer and closer. Becoming Calendar-centric has help led to my biggest improvement in not missing commitments and remember all of the special occassions I always missed. I'm also overly-organized on the social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, using the Friends Lists features on both to quickly be able to get caught up on the goings-ons of friends within the same "group" in my life (friends from youth, met in school, met at work etc..). I've also returned to my ever-so successful use of goal lists- daily, this month, the quarter, this year, w/i 2yrs, w/i 5. Those are just a few of my favorite things.
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