Be Happy

For years, the media has led the charge on the importance of balancing work and life. I not only believed it was the key to happiness, I was convinced that I had it all under control. I worked in the high paced, high stress world of high tech, and even as I was climbing the corporate ladder of success, I still managed to eat healthy, exercise daily, entertain friends, remember birthdays and take vacations. Then when my family started to fall apart due to illness and death, I successfully lived two separate lives with the skill of a juggler watching one ball in the air and one in the hand. One life was in and out of corporate boardrooms doing business presentations, and the other was in and out of hospital rooms dealing with doctors.

I looked as though I had effortlessly achieved what most women strive for their entire lives—balance. But the only thing balanced about my work and life was that they both provided an equal amount of daily stress. I was continually feeding my physical self (my ego) with the lists I finished, the sales I exceeded or the meals I perfected. The more my ego got fed, the more my spirit was starved. As I continued to increase my responsibilities at work, the line between who I was and what I did completely vanished. When my health started to suffer, and my mind started to wander, I walked away at the peak of my career. I did not consult part-time. I did not take another job. (I did not pass GO and collect $200!) There was no middle ground that would get my equilibrium back. I was too far out, like a fishing line tangled in a bed of muddied seaweed. The only solution was to cut the line and start over. That’s when I embarked on a whole new life and work journey that was truly balanced—nurturing my body, mind and spirit. Companies will be bought and sold. Work will come and go. This is the temporary nature of the physical world in which we live. The key to balance in life is creating harmony between the spiritual world we come from and the physical world we live in.

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Five ways to choose balance in your life: • Take up a hobby that has nothing to do with your job. • Feed your spirit regularly—meditate, get a massage, exercise, write, paint, sing. • Don’t be connected to work 24 hours a day, just because you can. • Socialize with people outside of work, including family, friends and pets! • Never miss, postpone or cancel vacation time.