Balancing Inner and Outer Life: Fine Points for Maintaining Your Energy

The more I reflect on this Washington post article sent to me by Dick Rowan, the more sense it makes to me. I think it holds a key to something that has perplexed me about myself for years...why I go into funks periodically that I can't quite explain. As you probably can gather if you spend any time at all here, I'm a woman with many interests and I'm grateful for having a mind and body fit enough to pursue so many of them.

As my husband will emphatically attest, I have never fully grasped the concept of being one person with a finite number of hours in a day. No matter how I orchestrate my schedule and how efficient I become I just can't get to everything I would love to do.

That used to be a source of stress for me. When would I do my photography if I am learning massage and when will we practice our Latin Ballroom dance and I have a schedule cookie baking with Monique and I wanted to get those tomotoes canned....

You get the picture.

In recent years I have come around to understand that I can't master everything. I've been content to dabble and juggle my diverse interests and don't sweat it if I let a few skills and talents lie dormant for a while. I'm much happier for it and life is much more manageable.

But every once in a while I hit a glitch...a funk...a patch of stress and frustration that really gets to me a lot more than it should.

That's where the concept of Inner and Outer balance comes in so perfectly.

Sometimes when business is rockin' or when the house needs attention, or other people need me, I can drop all those things that feed my inner life. All of them.

I can be a workhorse so efficient and productive it was scary. And I can tell you right now I never regret a single thing that I accomplish. When I am in my productive zone, there is no fluff and I am proud of what I get done.

That is my dilemma. I know in those times that I consciously make choices that I feel are important to make and feeling myself overworking with every one of them while knowing I would choose the same if I had to do it over again.

The same, with one exception...I would hope I'd remember to feed the well!

It takes a considerable amount of discipline to remember that we have a whole inner aspect to our lives. We can't only focus on the OUTER work to be done.

An interesting twist on this theme: I realize that some of the activities I have tried to balance and then dropped along the way, at times, seemed external to me but were really ways I fed that inner part of me. Perfect example: hanging clothes on the line in the summer. I love that more that I can say. Hardly did it at all last year. Ditto with letting my garden get away from me as the season wears on (a big mistake for a perennial gardener!). When I look from one angle, it is simply that I had to trade one activity for another due to time. What I see on closer reflection is that I may end up, unwittingly, trading too many internal "feeders" for external activities. The fact is, weeding is like meditation for me. One of the most head clearing activities I do. If I trade that for reading a book on building my business, for example, and hire someone else to do the weeding it looks like that is just sensible, right? Do what only I can do (grow my own business) while I hire out to a high school kid the mindless labor of weeding.

But I can't farm out my own meditation to a high school kid. Gardening, for me, isn't an external task. It's an INTERNAL one.

That is HUGE.

Same thing with photography. INTERNAL. And, believe it or not, cleaning is, too.

So, today I am experimenting a bit. The frogs are croaking their heads off and the mallards are getting quite frisky in the marsh and I have my laptop and I am on my patio watching the geese land just this very minute. Can internal and external co-exist a bit with my technology providing a bridge? I hope so. It would be very cool to think that I could get back to that writing that I started and put out some articles for you to assist you in your own endeavors while keeping myself immersed in an environment that keeps me feeling vital and refreshed. The truth is, self-employed people are often notorious overworkers, especially when they love what they do. I'm no exception. Integration is difficult to achieve. Marrying my inner and outer lives a bit more in the actual activities of my daily life fits right in here. I feel a beautiful Springtime coming on...

Let's see how it goes...

Comments

[George Kakaris]

Really the good article and the points here are awesome for maintaining the body. Also you can use essential oils to keep your body relaxed and fit. For more info visit at http://www.aromatherapypoint.com/

[Dick Rowan]

Balancing our inner and outer lives is not a solitary act. Sometimes we must get our bearings through other people (or croaking frogs). Many of us have been experimenting with social technology--like blogging and micro-blogging, with varying success. I was touched by Valeria Maltoni's post about 'one of those days' that we all have, when all balance seems lost. She asked her Twitter followers, who are mainly 'strangers,' "Does anyone have a spare hug for me today?" She was warmly answered. I like that.

Valeria shares her thoughts on connecting ideas and people at Conversation Agent. http://www.conversationagent.com/2008/05/the-kindness-of.html

[Laura Young]

This was a great comment, Dick. Took me a few days to get over and check out the post but what a great example of the positive side of Web 2.0. I also have had people I do not know provide very helpful feedback, advice and suggestions through FB. It isn't something I was expecting, but it has expanded my views on what this "virtual life" is all about.