A Sense of Balance
Summer officially arrived this week and our festival openings are upon us. As the season shifts, let’s see if we can lighten up and enjoy the summer months. If you feel like you have been walking a tightrope without a safety net, daily living could seem downright treacherous about now.
At the core of many of our fears about the future is the quest to make perfect decisions, once and for all, which will yield all benefits and no prices. We can also get stuck in ‘life is hard and then you die’ rigid attitudes. Either approach can throw our lives out of balance.
When I was a pre-teen, my father, who was raised in an orphanage during the depression, had a routine he loved to do with any new friend of mine. I would bring my friend in to meet my parents. My father would look over his newspaper, take great pains to fold it neatly, cross his legs, and light his pipe. Then he would say: “Well, Nancy, it is very nice to meet you.” Pause. “Now tell me Nancy, what kind of work did you do today?” Nancy would stammer through a litany of “I made my bed, cleaned my room, helped my mother, etc.” Another pause and my father would deliver his punch line. “Now Nancy, you actually call that work?” By this time, I would be dragging my stunned friend by the arm, trying to explain that this treatment was my father’s idea of fun.
My father died at 59 just as he was starting to give himself permission to enjoy some of the privileges earned from all his hard work. His responsibility-privilege ratio was severely out of balance.
If you’ve been balancing on a high wire and treating each responsibility you have as life threatening, it may be time to climb down and increase your comfort level by enjoying the privileges that currently surround you. A walk on the beach, a visit with trusted friends, or simply a new choice to let go of unnecessary stress can go a long way to relieving the static in your nervous system.
Take time to review your present attitudes from the privilege-responsibility perspective. Balance this equation and your enjoyment quotient will instantly increase.
Susan offers local workshops on the Dynamics of Intuition and is the author of: Beyond Intellect: Journey Into the Wisdom of Your Intuitive Mind. Learn more at http://www.susanvelasquez.com or (949) 494-7773.
