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I have a confession to make.\u00a0 <\/span>I got way out of balance twice in the last couple of days.\u00a0 <\/span>After weeks of feeling pretty good about life, I was thrown a couple curve balls \u2013 one was generally positive, the second completely unanticipated and a little destabilizing.\u00a0 <\/span>Both the \u201cgood\u201d and the \u201cbad,\u201d however, escalated my stress.\u00a0 <\/span>I quickly realized I had gotten out of kilter and both times I knew I needed to find my way back to center.<\/p>\n I think finding equilibrium in the face of all that comes our way is a balancing act. Everything from minor things like traffic jams and spilled coffee, to major things like cancer and the death of a loved one, can throw us off.\u00a0 <\/span>I think we need to continually re-evaluate our mental\/emotional\/physical\/spiritual state and when we feel out of balance it would certainly behoove us to get back into balance as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n We are all different, so what works for one may not necessarily work for another.\u00a0 <\/span>What works for me, almost every single time, is immersing myself in nature.\u00a0 <\/span>Sometimes a walk is just right.\u00a0 <\/span>Other times I may need to find a place that feels slightly more special.\u00a0 <\/span>I may need to sit on a log or lie on the grass or dangle my feet in water.\u00a0 <\/span>I may need to utilize a few more of my senses.\u00a0 <\/span>I may need to slow down more.<\/p>\n I have a second confession to make.\u00a0 <\/span>I am not the most disciplined person in the world.\u00a0 <\/span>Sometimes I go for a week or more faithfully doing my spiritual practices of prayer, meditation, and singing.\u00a0 <\/span>But then sometimes I will be tired, or I\u2019ll be traveling, or I\u2019ll be a bit down for some reason, and then I slack off.\u00a0 <\/span>And today it really hit me that during these slack times, I am particularly vulnerable to \u201cbad news\u201d or other unforeseen upsets.<\/p>\n I was blessed to be in a class a few years ago with meditation teacher, Scott McBride.\u00a0 <\/span>At the end of his lecture, a student asked him what he did when he had a particularly hectic schedule, which was often true for him.\u00a0 <\/span>I will never forget his answer.\u00a0 <\/span>He said he woke up earlier and meditated longer.<\/p>\n Wise man!!!!<\/p>\n Me?\u00a0 <\/span>Not so much.\u00a0 <\/span>I have yet to master this wise advice.\u00a0 <\/span>When I get off-kilter from busy-ness, tiredness, or stress, my tendency is to go for comfort of the fast food variety.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m not necessarily talking literally here (although sometimes in desperation I will go for some ice cream,) I mean I go the easy route.\u00a0 <\/span>Instead of sitting in meditation for a while or journaling or walking, I may watch a movie instead.<\/p>\n Today I really learned the \u201cpay-off\u201d in doing things right.\u00a0 <\/span>After last night\u2019s upsetting news, I knew that I had to be outside this morning.\u00a0 <\/span>I had<\/i> to.\u00a0 <\/span>I had to walk the labyrinth and I had to spend time with the nearby stream. I had to get back into balance. After a couple hours of Nature\u2019s medicine, I was feeling not only renewed, I was downright exuberant.\u00a0 <\/span>And amazingly, (but not) everything fell into place with essentially no effort on my part.\u00a0 <\/span>I simply had to get out of my head and my stress, and move back into a place of grace and faith.\u00a0 <\/span>Absolutely amazing.<\/p>\n How do you<\/i> come back into balance?\u00a0 <\/span>Do you meditate?\u00a0 <\/span>Garden?\u00a0 <\/span>Play some music?\u00a0 <\/span>Go for a run?\u00a0 <\/span>Pray?\u00a0 <\/span>Spend time outside in nature?\u00a0 <\/span>Take a long hot bath?\u00a0 <\/span>Read inspirational books?\u00a0 <\/span>Whatever works for you, I encourage you to learn from my mistakes and try doing these things on a more regular basis.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019ll make it much easier to handle the curve balls that sometimes get thrown at us.<\/p>\n May you find happiness and peace in your daily life.<\/p>\n Abundant blessings to you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have a confession to make.\u00a0 I got way out of balance twice in the last couple of days.\u00a0 After weeks of feeling pretty good about life, I was thrown a couple curve balls \u2013 one was generally positive, the second completely unanticipated and a little destabilizing.\u00a0 Both the \u201cgood\u201d and the \u201cbad,\u201d however, escalated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":553,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,35,34,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-balance","category-center","category-centeredness","category-stress"],"yoast_head":"\n