Finding Balance in a Teeter-Totter World

Visualize the Scales of Justice, or riding a bicycle, or your overdrawn bank account…all require balance.   So it is in our personal lives.  Balance must occur or we spiral out of control, deviate into dangerous paths, or succumb to excesses.  Learning how to both master and magnify our lives is the challenge of mortality.

In today’s world, a disproportionate amount of government money, as well as personal energy and funds are used in combating imbalance in peoples’ lives.  A wide range of abuses and addictions reek havoc in families and communities when personal balance is neglected. Like a biker, we tilt, tip, and finally crash if we cannot find balance.

The remedy is a big dose of honesty and objectivity as we conduct personal self-inventories.  Like all successful businesses who “count the costs” with annual inventories, we also need to evaluate how we use time and resources, and our choice of habits.   Once we identify where we are tilting, we can rein in our excesses and find balance.  If one of these habits is an addiction, there are at least five addiction recovery groups in the county whose schedules are posted each week in the San Juan Record.

After looking at the “man or woman in the mirror” we need to become pro-active and choose to live a more moderate and balanced life.  It may mean giving up video games, TV, over-eating, laziness, or more sinful obsessions.   By denial, we become master of ourselves and our families are strengthened and government and schools no longer have to be responsible for repairing the disharmony in our life.

In doing a self-evaluation we need to seek balance in all areas in our lives: physical, spiritual, intellectual, emotional, social, and financial.  Each of these, when balanced, leads to Hózhó or harmony.  There are abundant self-help books on each of these topics.  A Provident Pro-active Person will find and use the specific helps they need. Below are a few suggestions:

Physical balance -- As a general rule fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables should be the backbone of any

healthy lifestyle, with moderate amounts of protein and carbohydrates.  Choices made in the grocery store are critical.  Turn a blind eye to sweets, and other vitamin depleted processed non-nutritional foods.   And most of all, DON’T sabotage yourself by having tempting treats in your house, (i.e. Christmas/New Year’s celebrations!)

Physical balance includes not only what we eat, but the benefit of exercise in our lives.  We are blessed to live in an area with clean air, temperate weather and beautiful scenery, all of which lends itself to healthy outdoor activities.  The grassroots commitment in San Juan County for swimming, running, walking, biking, and sports makes it easier for newbies to join in and participate.  With the addition of a new wellness facility in Blanding, cold weather will no longer be a deterrent in our quest for balance (though it still needs an indoor pool).  The example of the Hiatts, Arthurs, Lymans, and Glovers are some of the shining examples of healthy exercise.

Intellectual balance – Having grown up on an isolated farm, I learned early that reading would take me into lives and places I’d never meet otherwise.  Our whole family read, and visits to the Idaho Falls library which ranked right up there with Roy Rogers’ movies.  Today I find the coaxings of the computer equally compelling, as it is a tool for my creative energies, but unless I’m solving problems, it doesn’t provide the same intellectual challenge as a good book. 

Parents who read with children, and teach them to love books give them the best gift of all, and assure their children’s success in school and in life.  If you can read you can learn anything thing in the world.  If you don’t read, you’re no better off than someone who can’t.   

WWW.goodreads.com is a web site where friends can share reviews and discuss books.  Two of my former roommates read 1-3 books a week and Janet Bradford, a local reader, tackles books of substance.  From them I’ve accumulated a long list of “books to read” which I need for personal balance – if I can pry myself from my computer!

We are also blessed locally to have easy access to college classes and workshops.  Discussion groups and presentations at the museum offer additional stimuli for the wimpy minded who need some mental “weight lifting” exercise.

Emotional balance is possible, though life sends us some major emotional hurdles as we race to life’s end.  Sometimes coaching is needed, or a trusted listener who will be our sounding board.  Good counselors who can teach empowering skills and valuable aids. A workshop on this topic will be held, Tues. Jan 11 at 8 PM at the Arts and Events center, conference room.   Both clergy and mental health workers are readily available in San Juan County.  Seek and ye shall find.

Financial Balance:  Probably no other facet of life causes more stress than the inability to balance finances.  Learning to purchase only “needs” and not “wants” is a big step towards balance.  Just saying, “No” refers to commercial promotions as well as to drugs.  A women’s conference scheduled in Blanding on January 28 will provide additional helps on this topic. 

Social Balance:  Relationships and the ability to communicate and work together is critical in both family and community life. It’s a great reason to walk with a partner.  As Kenny Shumway described our group, "It’s a walkie-talkie club."

Spiritual Balance:  Probably our most neglected facet is spirituality.  As dual-natured beings, we tend to feed our body more than our spirit.  If we would “snack” on the scriptures as much as we do cookies, “sneak” in a prayer or two during the day, instead of ice cream, and “savor” the tender mercies of the Lord, as we do good gravy, we would feel God’s love in greater abundance.  As we feast on what we’re grateful for, and notice the good in others, our spirits grow and our hearts soften.  It is then we can pass along the joy we feel through service to others. 

May you level out your life’s teeter-totter this year, and find balance each day.  Happy Hózhó.