My friend and trainer, Arnie Probeyahn of Prime Training, pushes the thoughts of balance into my mind…focus on your core and your balance will be there he says…interesting thought, yes?
Focus on your core and your balance will be there…maintaining your balance in life is a lot like maintaining your balance in exercise; it’s all about the core.
We all know that the core of our body are the muscles that are deep within our abs and back which attach to the spine or pelvis, but what is the core of your internal being? What does that consist of…do you really know?
What are you doing to strengthen your core and maintain your balance in life?
When I speak of my internal core; I immediately refer to the (5) major core essences in my life and the importance of maintaining that emotional and physical balance.
-Mind
-Body
-Spirit
-Family
-Passion
If you had to list your internal core essences (CE), what would they be? Take a minute to jot down at least 5 areas that balance your life – those things that keep you balanced. It’s okay to list something you don’t have right now but that you really want. You may find that your CE’s are very similar to mine as each of these categories can include a multitude of levels.
While these specific things have always been in place in my life…what I found is that my body was way off which threw me in a total tail spin. Now that I work out daily either in the gym, on my bike or walking I feel more balanced. I had the mind, spirit, family and passion balanced but not the body.
It can be hard to find balance daily in all of these places but I now have a system…let me share it with you. If you make a choice to be tuned into your core and balance daily you will immediately know when something is missing. I hated the feeling of being “off key” and not really knowing why so I developed this system to help me identify what part of my core is not balanced.
Once you have identified your CE’s you will have a guide. Each day in a journal list and identify those things that happen during your day that helped you meet each of these core identifiers. Don’t worry if you don’t meet every one every day. As you get used to doing this exercise you will be able to mentally feel when these goals are met. I have attached some references to my (5) CE’s and how I meet them each day.
Touching on all them daily will give you a sense of calm each day but remember don’t force this…let it happen. You may not be able to meet each of your CE’s each day when you first start…but just like when you are working out, when you engage your core everything balances out. So learn to engage your internal core daily and life will balance itself out.
Journaling
It is important for you to create your categories and how you fulfill them. For example my spiritual CE may be totally different from yours. When you created your CE’s you must have had some idea of what you do that fulfills this need.
Here is your time to now list those things under each CE that relate to your needs. Here are some examples of mine and how I put them in my journal.
Mind
-Reading
-Mentoring
-Learning
I almost always read at night because it is important to me to continue to learn and grow. If I work with my management team or someone that I am mentoring and I help them learn something new, see something different or teach them a new skill this fulfills my CE for this category. Any new and creative projects also fuel my mind, spirit and passion!
Conversations with people who make me think and use my mind are also great inspirational moments in my day…I feed on these type of moments as they help me grow, keep an open mind and understand how others feel and need.
Body
-Working Out
-Eating Healthy
-Getting a massage
-Getting an annual checkup
-Splurging on a manicure or pedicure
You will find that you need to identify ways to make sure that you are not always filling your CE’s with the same thing. For instance, if I always splurged on a manicure and forgot about working out I would not be paying close attention to what my body needs. As you will find there are also balances within each CE and different ways to fulfill them. Remember that your CE is may not always be about fun but making sure you are doing what needs to be done to balance you out. Your body is an important CE and you must make sure that you are taking care of yourself both physically and emotionally.
Spirit / Spirituality
-Self-Discovery
-Keeping an open mind
-Meaning, purpose & direction
My spirituality is very important to me and while I don’t necessarily do ‘something’ to touch on this daily I work to find my purpose in life all the time. Many times I will write in my journal something that happened that day that gave me a certain feeling, such as…’this is why I was in this particular place today.’ I find that the universe feeds me situations where I am needed to make a difference. I always write these things down because when I reflect back I know at that time what my meaning, purpose and direction was at that moment.
Family & Friends
-Spending time with family
-Spending time with friends
Anything that revolves around my family and friends falls into this CE. A phone call or lunch with a friend, dinner with my husband or shopping with my daughter, talking to my son or just sharing a laugh with a co-worker…these are all important to me and I normally have more than one of these each day.
These CE’s are my lifelines…I could not survive without them.
Passion
This is such a broad topic for me; anyone that knows me knows that I can get fired up over something that I am passionate about. This can be from a baseball game to a new work project. Normally there is not a day that goes by that I am not passionate about something; if I am not I know it right away.
Know what fires you up and what you are passionate about – this is important because it keeps you motivated and energized in life.
I also gain an imbalance from my passion at times. When something I feel passionately about is in an influx it can cause my focus and balance to plummet off the edge of a cliff. I still work to identify these feelings immediately; that is not to say that they don’t affect me in an adverse way but this system has taught me to identify this much quicker and get it under control.
I hope these tips have helped you begin to think more about what your CE’s are; how to engage them and how they can be used to maintain balance in your heath, personal life as well as your business life.
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