Life balance - without drugs

Life balance can be achieved without drugs and expensive treatments. The may be some critical cases where medical intervention is necessary, but outside of these, a drug-free and inexpensive solution is available.

Two of the most significant outcomes that will come from finding or getting close to your perfect life balance are: much lower stress levels; and you will feel in control of your life.

Think of your life as being something like a wheel spinning around a point. If that point is not the center then things will be out of balance. If you haven't already, read this article about relieving stress for more about this concept.

This is not new age hocus-pocus. Life balance is not a scientific breakthrough. It is about keeping it real, maintaining a healthy outlook on your personal challenges and responsibilities and arranging your priorities into the most effective order.

A lot goes on in our lives and it all needs to be balanced, maybe not all aspects every day need our attention, but over the long run if you neglect any one area it is likely to lead to you being out of balance. These elements of life include:

• family
• health
• friends
• social and recreational
• spiritual
• relationships and romance
• financial
• self development
• and more.

To find your life balance, it is a matter of prioritizing each of these elements so that it receives the right amount of time and attention from you. The choices you make will be based on your life goals and values and when done right, will lead to living a balanced life.

Day to day there will be times when you cannot give something the attention you know it needs. It's okay. So long as your overall priorities are in order, balance will be restored as time goes by.

Are you ready? Spend some time reading through these tips and then work through each one to be sure you find your life balance.

1. Know what you want. What do you want out of life. Write down your answer. What are your goals for your personal life? Work life? Try these goal setting tips if that helps. Be prepared to refuse to take on extra responsibilities and concerns that are not your own.
2. Know how you will get it. Once you have determined what you want out of life, structure you life to make it happen. Plan your days ahead. Have some alternatives up your sleeve in case of emergencies. Maintain a healthy mix of work, personal and recreational activities, balanced over a weekly period. Choose to spend more time on activities that complement your life goals and less time on anything that does not.
3. Know your limits. Not everything has to be done today. Really! Take a break when you need it. Schedule restful activities between stressful times when you can foresee such things coming up.
4. Write it down. This not only helps relieve the stress of keeping it all going around in your head, it allows you to add comments. Think of your written plan as a journal. Reflect on how things went and when you see that you could have done something better, it will help you make improvements the next time you need to do it.
5. Stay healthy. This is an element mentioned in the list above but it also warrants its own mention here. Nothing will help you maintain life balance more than feeding your body healthy and nutritious meals.
6. Stay sane. Just like you body needs fuel and will begin to malfunction if mistreated, so will your mind. Your mind need a break sometimes. It needs to recover from hard work just as much as your body. Get adequate sleep and weave in at least one fun-loving activity every day.
7. Know your friends. Don't be a stranger. Having a great support group and keeping in touch regularly will not only help you in times of need, you will be helping others to reach their life balance too.
8. Keep it simple. We all get the same 24 hours. You can only do so much and then it is time to sit back and reflect on how it went today. Don't get so busy each day that you miss the years. What that means is, live a little every day rather than burning yourself out daily. Spread your work out a bit more if necessary (see point 2 above).

Where do you want to go now?

>> Ten more tips on how to maintain life balance - with a little bit of humor thrown in.

>> What is Stress - some background into the causes and symptoms of stress.

>> Relieving Stress - a discussion about how to deal with stress in your life.

>> Relationships - sometimes we can be under stress due to strained relationships. You may find some stories and tools on these pages to help heal those strained relationships.