Interview On How To Attract Life Balance
(Finding Balance; limevelyn on flickr)
Stacey from Create a Balance emailed me saying that she was inspired with the term “attracting life balance” while meditating, which could put us working together. We decided to kick off our joint collaboration with this interview of her and a discussion that marries the ideas of “the law of attraction” and “life balance” together.
Introduction
Question: Hello Stacey, thank you for allowing me to interview you. Can you tell me a little more about yourself and what made you start a site on creating balance?
Stacey: Hi Evelyn, It is an honor to be collaborating with you on this post. Like you, I play many roles in my life. I am a mommy of two young boys, a wife, a daughter, a consultant, a blogger, a writer, an artist, etc. I am also working towards my professional life coach certification.
CreateaBalance.com is a reflection of my life passion, which is to help people think about and practice the art of life balance. When I was single and in my twenties, I met many unhappy married moms. That is when I made a commitment to myself that I would carefully listen to my authentic voice and that I would never lose my sense of self. This personal passion eventually evolved into my life mission, which is to help millions of people balance the demands of being everything to everyone without losing their sense of self, their needs, and their passions in the process.
From Evelyn: I can see your site fulfilling a need. I could have done with a lot of advice in finding balance when I first had kids. I remembered feeling lost and all alone. In short, the first year was an extremely difficult one. The issue of not having life balance continued to be a problem for many of us because the demands from parenting and family can possibly be consuming of all our time.
I find your mission very inspiring. Many of us are predominantly occupied with the pursuit of money and moving up career ladders. I am sure that life is not just about having more material possessions and external success. Which leads to my next question…..
Definition of Life Balance
Question: Can you share with me how you would define life balance?
Stacey: Life balance is a practice, not a destination, and it means different things to different people. For me, life balance means balancing the needs of my inner authentic self with the needs of all of the other things that demand my time, attention, and energy.
From Evelyn: I like the idea of balancing needs of my inner authentic self with the demands of everyday living. In the past, I felt that time spent on nurturing self was not exactly productive and if anything, it would reduce the amount of time I can spend on working hard for my money. However, after learning about the law of attraction, I realized that my thoughts were not aligned to abundance concepts. I decided then that I needed to make a change.
Definition of Abundance
Question: Would you have any thoughts on the relationship between abundance and life balance? Can you suggest a way or ways on how we can go about attracting balance?
Stacey: I think abundance is directly related to life balance. To me, abundance means having what you want in your life. Similar to life balance, abundance means different things to different people. To find the time, attention, and energy to have everything you want in your life you need to practice the art of life balance.
Here are three steps you can take immediately to attract life balance. These steps can be applied in no particular order.
The first step I recommend in attracting life balance is awareness. I suggest spending a significant amount of time discovering your authentic needs and passions. Then document (with words or visuals) your life balance intentions and look at them often.
The second step I recommend in attracting life balance is practicing the art of self nurturing. When you take care of yourself first, you are practicing the art of life balance.
The third step I recommend in attracting life balance is finding time for gratitude and for celebrating your life.
From Evelyn: Hey, those are steps that I am currently doing although I have not done them on paper! I have got the intention of discovering my authentic needs, the practice of self nurturing and finding gratitude. I just need to commit these intentions down rather than have all the thoughts swirling in my head.
Attract Life Balance With The Power of Intent
From Evelyn: I have already realigned what abundance means to me. However, I find the need to put all our “wishes” or “intents” together in an integrated sort of way. I’ve got this wish and that wish, this wish and that wish that I am sending out to the Universe, but I don’t know if they can in some ways be conflicting with each other.
I believe “attracting balance” is the answer for sending out a powerful intent that puts all my separate intents together. I have been thinking: would putting a “balance clause” help? For instance, I wish for a career that I will find fulfillment in. So I send out this intent. Say this is Intent #1. At the same time, I wish to have a loving family with close bonds. So I send out this intent #2. But Intent #2 requires me to put in time. So it is with Intent 3 to 10. However, we work in a time reality constraint of 24 hours. Perhaps, we also need to send out an overriding intent that puts all the intents of 1 to 10 together? Or each time we send out an intent, we have a clause there that says “we want this intent only if it balances with the rest of the intents”?
Question: Can you share your thoughts on what I have just said? I’d like to know how else I can proceed in sending out my intents.
Stacey: Your question is really making me think and I know it will spark some ah-ha moments in others as well. I like your idea about adding a balance clause to your intents. Another option would be to incorporate the art of life balance into your intent such as “I wish for a career that I will find fulfillment in and that is in balance with my other passions”.
I encourage you to think about the words “only if” that you mentioned in your life balance clause. Which of the two sentences seem more aligned with your heart: 1) I wish to have a loving family with close bonds only if it balances with the rest of the intents or 2) I wish to have a loving family with close bonds and I focus on how I can achieve this while also balancing the rest of my intents. Can you see (feel) a difference between these two sentences?
I also encourage you to think about the intents you would send out if you didn’t have time constraints and then repeat this exercise with the knowledge that you do have time constraints. Do your intents change?
From Evelyn: Hmmm….I note the subtle difference between 1) I wish to have a loving family with close bonds only if it balances with the rest of the intents or 2) I wish to have a loving family with close bonds and I focus on how I can achieve this while also balancing the rest of my intents. The first intent puts the intent of having a loving family with close bonds in priority as compared to the second intent. I also like your suggestion about checking out intuitively what happens when we send out intents with and without time constraints. I am certainly going to try out the exercise!
Be Life Balanced Now
Question: I have just written a post on Being before Having and I’ve received feedback from readers that they like the suggestions it contains. I’d be interested to know what you would recommend in making this post real-life applicable.
Stacey: You can practice the art of life balance right now by BEing aware of your priorities, needs, and passions. BEing aware of what is important to you will lead you towards behaviors and actions (DOing) that are aligned with practicing the art of life balance.
I think my number one tip would be to self-acknowledge that your life balance experience is a journey, not a destination. I cannot stress this enough. I don’t anticipate anyone shouting from the mountain tops “I finally have life balance”. I just don’t see this happening when change is the only constant in life.
However, I can imagine a day when millions of people are standing on mountain tops shouting “I am practicing the art of life balance”. I truly believe this practice of life balance will lead people to their personal definition of abundance.
From Evelyn: Your number one tip is great!! It just means that I may not have all the answers at any one point in time but that I move along according to the flow of the life. In fact, if we are in a state of Being in each aligned moment to our authentic self (in relation to our priorities, needs and passions), we would have already achieved life balance. Finding that mix, the balance – along with what we are hoping to attract into our lives – is very much a journey in itself.
Thank you, Stacey, for having the inspiration of “attracting life balance”. Through the sharing of your thoughts and the ensuing discussion, I have learned more about how I can possibly send out an integrated prayer intent to the Universe/God. It’s great that we put our heads together to jointly create value to our readers. I wish you every success in your endeavors!
For those who are interested to find out more about Stacey, here is her bio:
Stacey Hoffer Weckstein is a mom, blogger, life coach, and change management consultant. She has over 14 years of experience in training & human development and helps you think about and practice the art of life balance. Stacey’s posts encourage you to embrace your authentic sense of self, to live with intention, to practice putting yourself first, to hold yourself accountable, and to take action towards living your best life. Visit her blog at CreateaBalance.com to start practicing the art of life balance.
To jump start your practice of life balance, Stacey is offering a six-week Hungry for Balance Online Retreat. Each week will include videos, action-packed questions, power tools, activities, networking discussions, and more to help you practice the art of life balance.
Your Thoughts Please
How do you manage all the important aspects of your life? Are you already practicing attracting life balance? Do also share if you have got useful tips in sending out a powerful integrated intent.