Balance. It doesn’t mean walking a tightrope, more strolling down the right avenue

“The word ‘happy’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.”

– Carl Jung

One of my dearest friends and I were talking about personal development, happiness and how we’re doing with dealing with life. (All of us hypnotherapists are really fun people, honestly we are, and we also help each other deal with the big stuff!) And we started talking about balance, and I said how I thought it was over-rated because life’s all about cycles, you’re up and then you’re down, you will be sad and happy, joyful and depressed.

My friend agreed and she talked about how hard it is to stay standing still on a paddle board whereas if you surf, you go with the wave, and it moves you forward easily, naturally and you may crash and come off but you have had the ride and you’ve moved so far, so fast. And you’re not working as hard as you do on the standing board to stay in the one place!

And then I realised that what I’d been thinking of as balance wasn’t the right thing. I saw balance, and I think other people might do this too, as the work we do to stay in emotional, mental and physical equilibrium, to not rock the boat, to stay calm, at peace, serene even.

But we can’t stay serene all the time. We can’t be calm all the time. Because life isn’t calm, isn’t serene, its frenetic, harsh, challenging with occasional oasises of peace and quiet.

What I now think of as true balance is having inner strength and character to face challenging times and be okay, to face joyful successful times and stay a nice, decent person. To endure the cycles of life with inner equanimity that means whatever happens we’re true to ourselves and our values.

So remember that it’s ok to mess up. I mess it up still. Some of the best people I know still mess up on almost daily basis.

Then they put their game face on, accept failure, apologize for mistakes, remind themselves of why they do what they do. They keep moving forward. That’s the key, to keep moving forward. I want you to keep moving forward.

And its really important to know that life’s not perfect. It never was and nothing ever is. Work, relationships, dinner, your workout, everything. It’s not perfect and it doesn’t have to be.

You are perfect though. Exactly as you are. No matter what you’re doing, you are always perfect.

And know this too, it will take time. All good things do. You will become a better human being everyday if you work at it. But it takes time to let go of all the sh!t. Keep at it, remember, keep moving forward and have fun with that time while at it.

Keep going, there are always going to be people there to catch you. We are here for you. We’re all rooting for you in silence. We are hoping for you to win. For your journey. For your failure. For you to reach more. For you to create your impact. You are not alone.

And know this most of all, you are ready. Yes you are. You might doubt it. You might want to hide, it may seem easier. It does seem comfortable. I’m telling you, you are ready though to step into that slight discomfort, to move towards what you truly desire. You are ready.