Chaos to Calm: Finding Balance in Your Day

Components of a balanced lifestyle

Wake up at 6am., rouse and feed children, collect homework, fix lunches, pack backpacks, drop the children off at the sitter THEN hit the road by 7:15 to make your way through the early morning rush to get to the office and the rest of your day by 8:00. This pretty typical start to the average day sets the tone for everything that follows, and the toll it takes on our bodies, our minds and our relationships is just as chaotic.

The basic components of a balanced lifestyle remain true to what our mothers have told us since we were old enough to listen: eat a balanced diet morning, noon and night, get a good night’s sleep, get off your duff and get some fresh air and exercise every day. In an ideal world we would all have the time and energy readily available to us to incorporate those very sound rules and advice. The reality however is that as a society in general, we have intelligently and ambitiously evolved and advanced our world into a brilliant technological wonderland that we are too busy, tired, or stressed to enjoy. The components for balanced living and a healthy lifestyle now have to be scheduled in and around crack of dawn chaos, traffic jams, power lunches, more traffic and homework.

Can it be done? Of course it can. But we need to work at it and give finding balance in our lives the same priority and commitment we give to our jobs and other obligations. Working to relax sounds absurd, but that is precisely what is needed. Most of us kick back and turn on the T.V. at the end of the day once dinner is cleaned up, homework is done, kids are bathed and to bed and the laundry is tumbling in the dryer, believing we are relaxing. We aren’t relaxed. Our minds are still keyed up and either processing the day just finishing or already working out details of the day yet to come. Rather than decompressing and preparing our bodies and minds for a restful sleep, we often end our day even more stressed, thereby setting the tone for the day set to begin in a mere 6 or 7 hours.

So what can be done to stop this maddening cycle?

Take a few minutes to sit quietly and think. What are your priorities? What do you really want out of life? Does your job really define who and what you are? Or is it just the vehicle that provides you with the means to do and be more?

Our jobs and careers take up a big portion of our day, so it IS important that we find satisfaction in the workplace, take pride in our accomplishments and generally get the most out of the experience that is work. But it is not the sum of our existence. I for one certainly wouldn’t want to sing a lullaby and tuck my boss into bed at night, teach my colleagues how to ride a bike and make paper aeroplanes, or tap a keg, break out the BBQ and party hard with the board of directors. I want to do those with my family and my friends.

That separation between work and home seems pretty obvious and is clearly defined. But we all repeatedly muck it up and blur those lines by bringing the argument you had with your partner into work with you then taking the grumpy client call back home. It is always easiest to embark on a new project with the beginning of a new day. A new day is a fresh start and the perfect time to begin incorporating these time tested components of a balanced, healthy lifestyle... with a little bit of preparation the night before.

Before you go to bed, make the time to do the tasks you scramble to fit in each morning: prep coffee, make lunches, pack up school bags etc. Then get your well earned rest.

You might still need to be up at 6 am and be on the road at 7:15, but you now get the chance you didn’t have before to leisurely sip a coffee as you get ready or sit down and actually eat breakfast at breakfast time. By changing the routine of just a few of your daily activities you have given yourself the gift of beginning your day without the stress of frantically rushing about. That time is once again yours to enjoy the morning, connect with your family, or take something out of the freezer for dinner removing the nightly question of pizza or leftovers? When you walk out the door you are stronger and prepared to deal with whatever is coming your in your day.

The inevitable morning commute is not fun and never will be, but you can choose to let it be a stressful ordeal or an opportunity for some time just for you. Put on some music you love and just enjoy the ride. Grumbling about how slow your lane is going or flipping of the fellow that just cut you off isn’t going to get you there any faster. You can’t change it, and you will arrive when you arrive so let it go. Walking into the office calm and relaxed makes your morning flow a lot smoother and go by faster than walking in stressed and looking for someone or something to vent at.

12 o’clock and our celebrated lunch hour begins. Workday lunchtimes are famous for sidetracking and destroying all of our good intentions. Day after day we waste a good chunk of that precious hour queued up and grumpy as we wait our turn to waste our money on yet another greasy burger and fries, that delicious as they always are, will leave us feeling heavy and sluggish for the rest of the afternoon when we need our energy to get through. By taking the time the night before to make a lunch for yourself, you again have given yourself the time to enjoy your meal, socialize and take a quick stroll around the block getting some fresh air and stretching your body out. As this becomes the norm for in your day you can take that even further and utilize one of the many fitness programs like yoga or boxing that are specifically designed to be done in a short time over the average lunch break.

By the time 5:00 pm rolls around you find rather shockingly that you aren’t a tightly coiled ball of nerves as is usual by this time of day. You still had a boss to answer to, still had grumpy clients, and still had any number of issues arise as they always will, but by taking back a little time during the day, stressors were differentiated, compartmentalized and dealt with. Now you are able to start the commute home, enjoy another mp3 concert on the road and arrive home ready to live having successfully left work at work.

Helping kids with homework while you cook or walking the dog aren’t chores and they aren’t work, they are precious opportunities to live and connect. When we put some work into relaxing and focus on our priorities we find balance, serenity and a sense of belonging and purpose in our lives and in the world.

Check back soon for part two of Rainebaby's look at Chaos to Calm: So you made it home in one piece