Are you unbalanced?

When was the last time you checked the air in the tyres on your car? You may have found one to be lacking or perhaps even a little flat. What prompted you to check them? Many accidents are caused due to underinflated tyres, unfortunately my son can vouch for that.
So what has tyres got to do with balance and you?
Well as a Life Coach my company symbol represents yin and yang the ancient symbol of balance. That was chosen because I believe balance to be the key to a comfortable ride in life. Ok an underinflated tyre may not spoil your ride but if left unattended who knows what events might unfold?
Most cars have four wheels we have four key areas of life that we need to keep inflated. Our minds, our body’s, our spirits and our emotions. If we lose air from any of these areas of our life we begin to feel uncomfortable, ignore it and we begin to feel irritable, ignore it and usually some little catastrophe appears to remind us, ignore that and a bigger one comes along. The worst end result of ignoring the need to keep a check on our balance is suicide. Coroners record this as events carried out whilst the persons mind was unbalanced.
So how do we achieve balance? My own personal way is to dedicate a room in my house to each of the four areas and to try to spend time each day in each of those areas. No I don’t live in a mansion, I live in a basic semi with 5 rooms and a garage. I’m fortunate that my kids have grown up and I have a very understanding wife.
I have a study full of books to feed the mind. A garage full of weights and aerobic equipment to regenerate the body. My therapy room doubles as a meditation area although I am working on turning the loft into a spiritual haven. And of course the bedroom is always a good place to sort out the emotions.
To work on the mind there are many ways. Books, brain games, sound therapy, self-discovery and puzzles are just a few.
To work on the body you need to get the right mix between aerobic work and muscle work, not forgetting nutrition.
To work on the spirit there are many ways such as prayer, reading a variety of spiritual literature, meditation, fining solitude, enjoying open spaces, rediscovering nature to name but a few.
To work on the emotions, I use an emotional management model unique to me and self-hypnosis. Sometimes we lose air emotionally without even realizing it and neglect our feelings.
A very simple way of checking out your balance is to draw a circle on a sheet of A4, divide it into four quadrants and place the name of whatever month you are in a the top. If you are really into this sort of thing it may need an A3 sheet of paper. Or you could use excel if you are computer literate. If you want a copy of it in excel just contact me via my website www.c-options.co.uk and I’ll send you one for free.
Then throughout the month attend to each area of your life by placing a plus or a minus in which ever quadrant with the day of the month and the order of the event alphabetically.
So if you spent an hour in the gym on the third day of the month it could be written 3a in the physical quadrant. You then attach 4 further A4 sheets for each area and record what 3a was etc. If the same day you garden for an hour it is recorded as 3b, get it? If on the same day you meditate that is recorded as 3a in the spiritual quadrant. If you do something emotionally draining like lose your temper on day 7 you record it as -7a.
Now you have a 5 page document that acts as a visual guide to how balanced your life is and you can you it to keep an eye on inflation. If you are interested in seeing this in diagramatic form e-mail me.