Balance Is A Myth

Hello sweet friends! I want to hug you all right now. Sorry if you aren’t a hugger 😉 I’ll be mindful of the non-huggers when this season passes. I do know that I will be squeezing some people extra hard so beware. I am currently in my 5th week of social isolation and although it’s not dragging and I am mostly okay, I for sure have moments where I want to bolt out the front door and straight to my favorite coffee shop sans face mask. I’m still in such disbelief that this is where we are. I keep reminding myself that we are all in this together, right?

This morning on my daily walk, I was trying to figure out which podcast I wanted to listen too. I have a few favorites but it depends on my mood as to what I choose on any given day. I definitely gravitate to multi-person podcasts. The back and forth conversations keep me engaged. When I listen to one person talk, I tend to lose interest. There might be a few exceptions – hello Oprah! Anyway, today the phrase balance is a myth stuck out to me and I had to write about it. Did I just burst your bubble with that truth bomb? #sorry

This morning I chose an episode on Pretty Big Deal with Ashley Graham and her guest was Jay Shetty. If you aren’t familiar with either, let me start with that. Ashley Graham is a model and seriously gorgeous inside and out. She has a podcast that features people that she considers to be a pretty big deal, hence the name Pretty Big Deal. It’s positive and full of good nuggets. Jay Shetty is a motivational speaker and philanthropist. He has been spreading light and love after serving three years as a monk.

I’ve been inspired by Jay for some time now. He has quite the following based on what he shares and the experiences he has had. He considers himself to be a storyteller and a vibrant content creator. He has a way of speaking that makes you hear the message loud and clear. He can be found spinning his magic via social media and on stages across the world. He is a beautiful human with incredible wisdom.

When I am listening to podcasts, I often make notes in my phone of things that resonate with me. This morning, Jay and Ashley were discussing balance. What I loved was hearing Jay say that balance is a myth. I’ve had a conversation about balance with my sister-in-law many times. She has three young boys, homeschools and my brother works a lot. She is always trying to find a routine and balance between raising tiny humans, keeping her home pulled together and getting time for herself. It is such a powerful want yet not super achievable. I know she isn’t alone in her search for balance. I think most of us are searching for it.

Balance is a myth. We look for it, we hope for it, we talk about it but here’s the thing, balance is in constant flux. We want it so bad because it gives us a sense of control. It makes us feel like we are getting the best of all of our worlds. How often do we talk about finding the perfect work-family balance? Everyone is searching for it but let me say it again, balance is a myth.

So what does this mean? It means that you can create habits to give you more time in the areas that you want to spend time in. It means that you should give yourself grace. It means that you should cut back on the expectations. Balance is a word that might apply to your diet but when it comes to life? Maybe not. It’s much easier to balance a plate of food with the perfect equations of what is good for you. There is an easier template for that. For life? Not so much.

I’ve been thinking as we go into the 5th week of social isolation (I buckled down a few days before we technically were mandated), I’ve had ‘more time’ because I am not allowed to go anywhere. Does this mean that I really have more time? Well, I am certainly not utilizing my time in a way that makes me feel balanced. Why? Because things are just weird. But aren’t things always weird? We are always feeling pulled in multiple directions. Maybe now we weren’t feeling pulled physically as we don’t have physical places to be. However, our emotions are pulling us in various directions.

The distractions are always going to be there. There will constantly be moving parts and even on the best of days, we will have to pivot. The definition of balance is a condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions. Raise your hand if you feel this in your life. Is balance a priority to you? Is finding balance something that you put a lot of energy into?

Balance is essentially finding that sweet spot in the middle but that place doesn’t exist and if you do find it, it’s fleeting and it is only very temporary. So don’t sit in your moment of balance and think you’ve got it figured out cause my friend it’ll be gone in a hot second!

I hope that you are finding time for self-care and harmony amongst all of this crazy new normal. I also hope that we can get back to a place that once was sometime soon! A time when we can hug each other, shop in peace without being aware of keeping a distance, where restaurants and coffee shops are bustling, where we can appreciate these simple joys surrounded by people that share in all of the gratitude that we’ve had bottled up inside of us as we wait for life as we knew it to come back.

I do hope that there will be a new normal. One that is filled with more gratitude for each other, for our world, for health. I hope that we will be filled with joy for the simple things.