Exploration of Balance

The universe takes and gives everything you didn’t know you needed. These prompts are an invitation to step inside yourself and explore what balance means to you. Rupi Kaur

With balance, we get to love our life. As well-balanced humans, we care for our physical body, mind, emotions, and spirit. Some say body, mind, and spirit. The 4th area of balance I have heard called, volition*, mental health, and work life.

*Volition — The faculty or power of using one’s will: “Without conscious volition, she backed into her office” Oxford Dictionary

Rupi Kaur’s Balance Writing Prompts — What comes to mind when you think of comfort?

Hugs! When I went to treatment back in about ’84 I learned about hugs/touch. As humans, we need touch for comfort. I didn’t grow up in a hugging family. My mother did give a comforting touch but she was one of the few and I thought it was a mother's job!

When talking to my counselor, I told her I was uncomfortable with hugs, especially stranger hugs, she said, “Oh, you don’t have to hug anyone. Just put your hand out to shake.” I wasn’t used to the firm handshakes either as in my culture, handshakes were slight touches of the hands.

But, that is what I would do then — put my hand out for a handshake. By the end of the 30 days though, I was hugging everyone and my counselor gave me a book with hug stances that bears were doing. It was on my aftercare plan. I was put into hug therapy. My directions are below.

Virginia Satir, a family therapist, once said, “We need four hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth” Bing

I had two young children at the time, so I collected lots of hugs from them. Then I started collecting hugs from family and friends when I explained my aftercare plan. The good news is this rippled out in my family, so now I have a hugging family. The pandemic did affect this a bit, however.

My plan is to continue with my hug therapy, and to add self hugs that are helpful as well!

Rupi Kaur’s Balance Writing Prompts — My body is telling me that it needs ________________ right now. Things I can do to honor that are _________________.

Weight loss is the answer to some of my problems today. Healthwise, weight loss will help with some of the health issues that I live with or worry about. Obesity is one of the main concerns when it comes to diabetes, heart, cancer, and other health conditions.

Eating right, exercising daily, and decreasing stress are a few of the main things I can do. I won’t get anywhere by just talking or writing about it, I have to do it. I am doing better than I did last year.

On Mother's Day this year, I stopped eating sugar. Just before Mother's Day, I stopped eating chocolate and decaf coffee or decaf mocha. I started out drinking one small a day and it grew to 3 large a day. I knew I would have withdrawals from that. Decaf has some caffeine as does dark chocolate.

And there is sugar in the decaf mochas too. It was a good idea to stop that first. It made it easier to give up sugar. Processed food is something that I am watching now as so much of it has sugar as the first few ingredients, even things you wouldn’t think have sugar.

Luckily I am not struggling with this. My motivator was hearing about type 3 diabetes being connected to dementia/Alzheimers.

Rupi Kaur’s Balance Writing Prompts — Do you make time for rest? Why or why not?

Making time for rest is important to me. Because I am retired, and work part-time, I do take time for rest. I work at not making appointments in the early morning or late afternoon as I did for many years when working full-time. That allows for extra rest and slow going.

Taking a nap isn’t something that I can do right now. I think 7 hours of sleep a night is probably all that I need. I am tired at 9 or 10:00 p.m. though as I wake at 5:00 a.m. most mornings. I feel like an old person without the ability to nap.

Exploring balance in my life and loving my life. Every bit of it. The pros and the cons. Writing daily and reading everything I am interested in daily makes for a fun day for me now.

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First published by Mercury Press on medium.com