Building A Balanced Life in the Time of The COVID-19 Coronavirus
One of the challenges many of us are facing right now is to find how to live a balanced life in the time of the COVID-19 Coronavirus. It can be a significant challenge. Life has changed. We don’t know when things will get back to normal, or if we will emerge into a “new normal”. If we do go forth into a new normal, what will it look like?
Recognizing What We Can Control And What We Can’t
There are a lot of stressors, especially when we look ahead into the future. To a degree though, looking too much into the future simply adds to the stress we are feeling. There’s only so much we can do about what the future will look like. If we worry too much about things outside of our control, we are adding unnecessary stress to our lives and preventing ourselves from having a balanced life.
Within what we can control are the most important factors in determining the course and shape of our lives. We have the right, privilege, and obligation to build our own life. When we build our own lives, we are much more likely to achieve what we want to, have our daily life be what we want it to be, and therefore, be happier than if someone else is designing our life for us. When we take ownership of our own life we empower ourselves and have the best chance of successfully living our best life.
Everyone Has An Opinion
There are a lot of people out there with opinions about how you should be spending your time while you’re staying home (if you are) and engaging in social distancing. Most of us have probably seen variations of the following quotes:
If you don’t come out of the quarantine with a new skill, more knowledge or better health and fitness, you are basically useless and you should know it.
and
If you don’t come out of this with a new skill, you never lacked time, you lacked discipline.
These quotes, and variations like them, may be well intended, but they are in fact rather judgemental and arrogant. Most people would hope that you and everyone else comes out of this situation where we are staying home and social distancing healthy, safe, and a better person. How you become a better person though is up to you. No one knows every aspect of your life, what you do, think, and feel, so no one is better than you to decide how you should live a balanced life.
Your Time Is Yours
Perhaps you normally work a lot and your relationships with your significant other and your children are strained or stressed. Maybe instead of spending 60 hours at work a week, you’re now spending 10 hours a week applying for new jobs, 10 hours a week on items on your “honey do list”, 10 hours a week on that hobby you used to have but dropped because you were working so much, and 10 hours on yourself- reading, watching that show everyone at the office talks about but you haven’t had the chance to watch. That still leaves 20 hours to spend with your significant other and children! 20 hours for you to work on your relationship with them!
Maybe you want to learn a new language. Maybe you want to write a book. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to lean more about the physics theories about how the universe works.
The important thing isn’t that you spend your time and build your life how someone else thinks you should. The important thing is that you spend your time and build your life in a way that will make you more happy. For most people that will probably mean building a more balanced life and becoming more empowered.
Achieving Balance
Balance is important to our lives. Just think of a spinning top or a stack of blocks. When they become unbalanced, they fall. A balanced stack of blocks is one that can be built on. Our lives are the same way. When we are in balance, we have a foundation we can build upon. This is one of the ways we empower ourselves.
Whether you are in a stage of your life where you’re seeking balance or you’re in a growth stage is for you to decide. Maybe taking some time to rest, kick back, and binge Netflix is your way of finding balance. Maybe that voice in your head telling you that you should be doing something other than binging Netflix is your way of telling yourself you’re in balance and ready to grow. Only you can discern where you’re at. It may take some practice to figure out where you’re at and how to listen to yourself.
Don’t let anyone else tell you how you should be spending your time, whether you’re someone who is currently sheltering at home or whether you’re an “essential” person and still going out to your job.
You know better than anyone else how you can be happy. You know what you want your future to look like, what your goals are.
So where are you? Are you working on achieving a balanced life or are you working on building your best life of your choice?
Garrett Leeds is the founder of the Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness Project
If you would like to support the Life, Liberty, And Pursuit Of Happiness Project, please consider contributing to LLPHP via GoFundMe
