Summer provides us with an opportunity that can help over the entire year. It’s hard to imagine work-life balance until you find that sweet spot where you know, even if it’s for a day that, “ Oh yeah, this is what it feels like.” Taking a break, or better yet a retreat is a way to bring that about within your awareness. Retreats give you some distance to look at the inner and outer trappings of your life with objectivity.
Whether it’s an afternoon away from the bustle or a week away from it all, both put you in touch with what balance really is for you. From this space, an exercise to try is to segment a piece of paper into four columns, then label them as follows:
1) What’s Working
2) What’s Not Working
3) What Changes Can I Make
4) Resources Needed
Filling each column out gives an overview of how your life is experienced by you. The formula that is creating work-life balance is highly individualized and often changes as time passes. Knowing what is feeding you and what is draining your energy is illuminating in itself. Deciding what shifts can be made and what you need to activate those shifts provides momentum to put a small step or even a whole plan into action.
