Like pieces of a puzzle, the many different aspects of your being come together to form the person you are. You work and play, rest and expend energy, commune with your body and soul, exalt in joy, and feel sorrow. Balance is the state that you achieve when all aspects of your life and self are in harmony. Your life force flows in a state of equilibrium because nothing feels out of sync. While balance is necessary to have a satisfying, energetic, and joyful life, only you can determine what balance means to you.

Achieving balance requires that you assess what is important to you. The many demands of modern life can push us to make choices that can put us off balance and negatively affect our habits, relationships, health, and career. In creating a balanced lifestyle, you must ascertain how much time and energy you are willing to devote to the different areas of your life. To do so, imagine that your life is a house made up of many rooms. By drawing this house, give each part of your life its space.  And size each room according to the amount of importance you assign to that aspect of your life. You can include family, solitude, activities that benefit others, healthy eating, indulgences, exercise, and working on yourself. You may discover that some aspects of your life take up an excessive amount of time, energy, or effort and leave you with few resources to nurture the other parts of your life. You may want to spend less time on these activities and more on those that fulfill you.

A balanced lifestyle is simply a state of being where one has time and energy for responsibilities and pleasures and time to live well and in a gratifying way. Balance can be a problematic notion to integrate into your life with many nuances. However, living a balanced presence can help you gain a greater sense of happiness, health, and fulfillment.