Creating the ideal work-life balance with meditation
Work does play an important role in our lives. As adults, we tend to spend the majority of our time at our jobs. And not just time, but our precious thought-space too. Some of us get so caught up in our work that we miss out on cherishing the little things in our personal sphere. How can we ensure that our time, energy, and attention is used in a balanced and effective manner? What is the best way to support ourselves in creating an effective work-life balance?
Here are some ways to achieve work-life balance:
1. Reflection and mind focusing techniques for stillness
A good way to ensure you’re living in your energy is to take up something relaxing, that doesn’t take up too much time. When we spend time sitting in stillness by ourselves, we can turn inward to reflect and focus our mind. This is a slow and methodical meditative experience that fosters a stronger mind and body connection.
2. Get out in nature
Take a walk, breath and just allow yourself to be in the moment instead of checking your phone every 5 minutes. When you take a walk, you find yourself talking less and just more observant of what is happening around you - the sounds, animals, landscape.
3. Get to bed early
Allow your body to regenerate, regulate hormones and create a good balance between yin and yang.
4. Stretching
You probably think about this as taking a stretch for a few minutes here and there but it’s really nice on the body to have an actual stretching practice just like how one would attend a gym or yoga class regularly. Stretching studios are in hype at the moment!
5. Participate in slow activities
This could include things like getting a massage, facial, writing, reading, golf and slow crafts.
6. Avoid rushing
This will involve being more organised, leaving earlier to get places, having things planned the day before and being more realistic with how much you take on during your day so you are not rushing like a mad person between appointments.
7. Just BE
Instead of being highly strung and stressing over all the little things - everything that hasn’t been done in the house like the dishes, clothes or the mess hasn’t been cleaned..let it go for a moment and relax. You want to let go of that negative tension and return to these things with a fresh mind. By then, you might realise that it’s not as big of a deal as it originally was. This is about just being instead of always doing.
Can you challenge yourself to find even just 10 minutes to just sit or lay there and relax.
8. Music before bed
If you have gotten to the end of your day and have not yet enjoyed any peace, put your headphones on to enjoy your favourite music which will help you focus and still your mind, making relaxing and sleeping easier. Also like the Calmteams playlist of Spotify.
9. Breathe
You can focus on your breath. Slow down and deepen your inhalations and exhalations. Track where your oxygen flows. Breathe deep into your belly, feel the rise and the fall of your chest. Repeat.
When you are about to get annoyed at someone or something, instead of reacting straight away, take a few deep breaths to regulate the flow of your emotions.
It takes a lot of time and dedication to create good habits and find that work-life balance. The end result is totally WORTH IT! You can change your life if you want to but nothing will ever get better if you don’t want to put in the mental effort to do so.
HOW INBLOOM HELPS LEADERS LEAD WITH WELLBEING FIRST
At In Bloom, we are helping leaders have a better understanding as to what their wellbeing looks like, holistically. We do this with in partnership with the Global Leadership Wellbeing Survey. This is the first step of our Leadership Wellbeing Coaching journey.