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GET YOUR LIFE back in balance cont.
You
When did‘ me time’ become something that we’ re supposed to feel guilty about? Sometimes there’ s an essential need for a little selfishness, even if that involves a simple tenminute meditation, or a short walk on your own, so make sure you focus on yourself as well as others – if you’ re run down and stretched too thinly, but everyone else is well looked after, the scales are tipping too far in the wrong direction.
The internet – particularly social media – can be addictive and can swallow up precious minutes if you let it. There have also been numerous reported cases of people getting hugely depressed because they’ re obsessing about the apparent Pinterest-perfect lives of others in comparison to their relatively‘ normal’ existence. Put the laptop away and spend any free time you have with real people in real situations – it’ s far less distracting and far more fun.
Prioritise. The importance of setting goals, deciding which are most important, and then doing the most important things first is not to be underestimated. The problem is often figuring out what it is that’ s most important. Ask yourself on any given day, in any given moment, what is your priority? Is checking your emails more important than calling your mother? Is talking to your friend when you’ ve already spoken three times that day more important than squeezing in a workout? In order to stay in balance, it’ s useful to reexamine your priorities often— once you decide what’ s important, focus on it and get it done.
Most importantly, remind yourself that balance is not a final goal, but an ongoing process. Being balanced doesn’ t mean being cool, calm and collected all of the time – it’ s a practice and the goal is not to become great at it, but to keep practicing it. If you start feeling like you’ re sliding too far down one end of the scale again, give yourself a break, work out where your priorities have become confused and start to redress again – the beauty of balance in life is that it can be recovered as quickly as it can start to slip.
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