What Does It Mean To Live A Balanced Life?

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Balance is something that is often mentioned in personal development and well-being circles. It is said you should eat a balanced diet, live a balanced life and seek a good work/family balance. But what is balance? What does it mean to live a balanced life and why does balance seem like such an elusive concept?

“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: And this, too, shall pass away.” – Abraham Lincoln

Life really is one thing after another. The physical environment we each live in is in constant streaming flux. Physically when it’s cold we shiver to bring our body temperature up. When it’s hot we sweat to bring our body temperature down. As living organisms we live in a constantly changing environment. Our bodies are well adapted to this state of affairs and respond appropriately when conditions deviate from their optimal state. This ability of an organism to maintain equilibrium (balance) by adjusting appropriately to the external environment is known as homeostasis.

And there in lies the key to understanding balance. Balance is the taking of appropriate action when circumstances dictate so as to maintain equilibrium. It is said that the great achievement of the sages of old was the achievement of great balance as human beings. How did they achieve great balance? In the present moment, when things would come up, they would respond accordingly.
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The Jigsaw Puzzle of Life

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Would you like to become more productive by doing less? Would you like to be capable of solving complex problems with sudden bursts of insight? Would you like to learn how to apply consistent effort to complete the most daunting of tasks? Great! Do a jigsaw puzzle.

Wait…What?

Recently, on a whim I purchased a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. I’d never completed a jigsaw puzzle before but I do enjoy all manner of mental stimulation. Interestingly the experience turned out to be unexpectedly instructive. As the pieces came together over the next couple of days the process of joining 1,000 pieces just so revealed a number of important lessons in productivity and the power of perspective and consistent effort.

Increase Your Productivity by Taking Breaks

As pieces of the puzzle began to come together there were times where I was engrossed for hours on end. The going was easy and the time spent productive. But then, suddenly I would hit a wall. No piece could be made to fit and for the life of me I couldn’t see where certain pieces should go.
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How to Figure Out What You Want in Life

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What do you want to be when you grow up? For some it may be a disturbing notion to consider that even in our late twenties, thirties and beyond we may still find ourselves asking this question of ourselves. Before I was ten years old I knew with naïve assurance what it was I wanted to do with my life. By the time I was twenty I was well established in the career I had decided on ten years before. Shortly after, life came along and swept the board clean.

If you can decide on a long-term career goal having it ahead of you can be a source of comfort and certainty that you can draw on. Knowing what you want to be when you grow up can serve as an anchor point in life. You know where you are and you know where you’re going. You know what needs to be done and have a plan for how to go about doing it.

On the other hand, indecision and uncertainty when it comes to deciding which career path to choose, which job to take or what training to pursue can become burdensome. Some may feel without a well-defined path to tread throughout their working life that they are at sea without an anchor. Simply drifting along to nowhere in particular. Achieving nothing in particular.

And that’s just what to do during work hours.
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How to Unleash Your Creativity

“I did not discover relativity by rational thinking alone.” – Albert Einstein

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Creativity is the vehicle by which we achieve much in life. We are often creative when we resolve business negotiations, when we solve problems, when we somehow organize a group of friends to all meet together for a night out, when we cook a meal and when we experience new spiritual insights. Creativity can be a great source of joy for us. It opens up new possibilities and allows us to make sudden leaps in many different aspects of our lives.

Creativity extends far beyond limited disciplines such as the fine arts of drawing, painting, sculpting, literature and music. To limit one’s notion of creativity would in itself be decidedly uncreative. The scope of creative activity is practically infinite.

What is Creativity?

Creativity can be defined as the discovery of new meaning or a new context of thinking. Notice how this definition is purely non-material. Creativity is something that happens within consciousness and only afterwards does the product of creativity eventually become manifest in material reality. As conscious human beings we are each potentially powerful forces of creation.
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Ancient Philosophy and Modern Personal Development

It is a common occurrence when someone is trying to take a step up in terms of their diet or exercise regime for unexpected saboteurs to appear. Most often the source of the sabotage is those who we had expected the greatest support from. This includes our partner, our mother or our best friend. Usually they do have our best interests at heart. Regardless, they often advise against what may appear to them to be an extreme or unusual path that we have chosen.

The result of this sabotage is doubt. We begin to question our own decisions. Perhaps I shouldn’t push myself quite so hard when I exercise. Maybe it is ok to break out of my dietary plan every now and again. Do I really want to continue with this fast? I’ve seen it happen and experienced it myself on numerous occasions. The disapproval of others, particularly those closest to us, however misguided and uninformed, can take the wind right out of our sails.

While this issue rears its head most often along the path of physical health it is also not uncommon on the journey of personal development. If you have experienced this problem you should know that you are neither alone nor is it a new problem. The ancient philosophers in their love of wisdom (the definition of philosophy) observed its occurrence in their own time.
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4 Ways to Get Great Sleep

Many of us feel we could do with more sleep. However, the demands of modern life make this dream largely impossible. But there is an alternative. Instead of always wishing we could have time for just a little more sleep, we can improve the quality of what sleep we do get.

The following are my tips for ensuring you get the very best quality sleep possible.

Sleep in Complete Darkness

Think cave, the night refuge of prehistoric humans. Our bodies are physiologically adapted to certain environmental circumstances and our physiology has not changed in close to 100,000 years. Essentially that means you are running around in a caveman or cavewoman’s body. Which also means you body is made to sleep in complete darkness.

It has been shown through scientific research that the release of melatonin is light sensitive. Light inhibits melatonin release whenever it touches skin but the eyes are especially important. Even as much light as produced by a single candle has an effect of reducing nighttime melatonin release. These days melatonin is sold as a sleep aid. But why buy and take a synthetic chemical when you can make your own, all natural, melatonin?
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