Exploring more and diverse ways to practice self love is life-changing. Learning and developing a self love habit can make you a new person.
Self love is the connection between your physical self and your spiritual self.
When you are able to create a personal interpretation of true and deep love for youself, to understand how you manifest it through your thoughts, words, and emotions, and to create a loving experiences for yourself with intention, it can be a significant spiritual moment.
Master the art of purposely flowing love upon yourself and you will become boundless in your ability to experience love. The power of love AND your access to it will always rest in your hands.
It is for this reason that self-love is the ultimate expression of love for you that can be exceeded by no other.
“Self-love is the ultimate expression of love for you that can be exceeded by no other”
Exploring ways of tangibly demonstrating love towards yourself is both intimate and personal. Each one of us defines love in accordance with our own values and emotional definitions. We love differently, express love differently and define love differently.
And because of this we collectively create an expansive experience and definition of love that we can each share while developing new depths to our personal self love.
The ideas of how to practice our own version of self love are boundless. To connect with this knowing, read through these ideas and tips on self love and choose which ones resonate with you. This is not a checklist with actions to be completed but an idea bank to inspire your personal expression of love for yourself.
Self Love Tip #1: Practice Self Love Through Words & Communication
Communication of love to yourself brings ideas, thoughts, words, AND sounds together.
It is the harmony of celebrating of you.
Be precise with the words that you speak to yourself, out loud or in your mind. Invoke the feeling of love by being loving to yourself in the manner in which you speak. Have you practiced saying “I love you” to yourself with breathless passion? Can you see yourself in a mirror and compliment each and every part of you from head to toe?
Giving to ourselves with genuine words of love, adoration, and approval can feel foreign. However, we often can communicate special words to others. Giving praises, love, and attention to something or someone outside of ourselves can spark joy in us. But what do you towards you to spark joy in you?
Practice learning the words you love to hear from yourself. And then practicing saying them in the way that you prefer to hear them. Take time to love yourself by using loving, emotionally-charged communication with yourself every day.
Written Words of Self Love Are As Powerful As Those Spoken
It may feel different but take the time to put into written words the love you have for yourself. Let the words spill over the page sharing all the different ways that you inspire the strong and seemingly unbridled emotions of love and adoration for you.
Once you have it written, read your love letter to yourself every day. Speak to yourself with emotion even if reciting the contents in your mind. The sincerity of your words is given life through your tone and inflections. You are in love with yourself so say it and mean it.
Create Intimate Places for Your Self Love Practice
Communicating the love that you have for yourself to yourself is personal and private. Honor the sanctity of your words by creating a quiet and undisturbed space that permits you space to share your thoughts with freedom.
Find a quiet corner in your home. Set a time early in the morning or late at night when others are fast asleep. Whisper your love letter to yourself like a hushed prayer.
Say your words of adoration while driving in your car while every passerby thinks you’re on a call
Make use of every home alone moment to empty your heart and say proudly all the parts and pieces of you that are loveable
Never miss a moment to say loving words to yourself every day. Add to your love letter every time you notice another piece of you that deserves to be highlighted and revered. You are an ever-expanding expression of love.
Capture your words, keep them close, and repeat. Your self love lyrics will be life-changing.
Self Love Tip#2: Practice Self Love Through Sensual Pleasure
Using our senses of taste, touch, sight, hearing, and smell, we experience and enjoy the world in vast and immersive ways.
Not only does each sensation bring with it its own unique pleasures, but they can be combined in an infinite number of ways and permit a symphony of blending that is soul soothing.
Be creative in the use of your senses and the honoring of love between you and you.
Make yourself a breakfast, lunch, or dinner for one, and spoil yourself with all your favorite pleasures for your meal. Spare no expense on your drink or your entree but instead focus on what brings you joy. What aromas make you lose time and space? What tastes make you smile? What simply looks beautiful on a plate? This is your gift to yourself so excite all of your senses when giving it to you.
Buy yourself your favorite flowers in abundance. Decorate every corner of your room with them. Let the bright or soothing colors make you feel as if you have walked into a sunbaked garden. Does their smell remind you of another romantic time? Are you transported to a place in your childhood? Let their magic make you fall in love with life again…and you.
Go for a walk through a tucked-away vintage clothing and art store. No one but you would know that you would love this. Let your fingers touch every single unfamiliar piece that your eyes land on. See if anything you feel sparks joy. Buy a small little trinket just to tuck it away in your nightstand drawer. Visit your reward as a reminder of giving yourself time to spend time with you and gifting your senses with the experience.
Your exploration of self love through your sensations is limited only by your imagination.
Ideas for Pleasuring Your Senses and Loving Yourself are Endless
You choose what your senses want to experience and give to yourself what you know that you call out for. Instead of explaining the details to someone else and using words to translate what feels good to you, give to yourself instinctively.
Maybe it is the sultry feel of satin sheets on your bed and the soft lightness of silk and lace on your waist as you put on a beautiful new piece of lingerie. Indulge in the pleasure of your own soft touch by using scented lotions and fragrant oils across all
Stream your favorite artist, basking in well-crafted lyrics, expertly played instrumentals, and images of an artist sharing their talent as if only for you. Listen to what relaxes your body,
Walk outside barefoot the next time it rains and wander from grass to concrete to earth just to feel the different textures and temperatures on your feet
You are the master of the feeling that lifts you, a gift that only you will know how to curate to perfection.
The purpose is to experience your gift as a genuine reflection of your points of pleasure. You know yourself enough and love yourself enough to bring together all that would be perfect for you.
Self Love Tip #3: Practice Self Love Through Self-Reflection
Thinking about yourself in loving ways is its own form of self love. Bring together different moments in your life that represent why your self love journey is an awakening and write them down.
See your life as if a movie, taking a close-up look at the small, almost insignificant signs, of the love that you exude without thinking. Embrace the love that flows from you by honoring it in a record:
You may be the giving spirit that gives a $20 bill to a homeless man without a second’s hesitation.
Remember your warm smile cast across the park when you shared an accidental glance with a woman with tears in her eyes. You didn’t know what hurt, but you thought a soft smile might help.
You may be the one who gave up your place in line, your seat on the bus, your question in class, and permitted someone else to have their needs met before your own.
You are the wonder that changes the world every single day in every single way. Take a moment to recognize the love that you are to your family, to your friends, and even to strangers. Be this same tender-hearted and loving spirit to yourself.
Reflect on How Well You Love Yourself Too
Do not forget to record all the ways that you rightfully and beautifully take care of yourself.
Recall when you didn’t answer the phone as you prioritized making your bath water and preparing to relax.
Remember the strong but kindly relayed words that you gave to your boss when you declined to sacrifice your weekend for the job.
Relish in the memory of your scheduled spa day after a hectic holiday week of planning, cooking, and hosting.
You are a beautiful reflection of self love and a model of self care and attentiveness. Take the time to bring these instances to mind. Write them down. Reread your notes. Celebrate your actions. Define love by both who you are and what you do.
Claim your self love by catching yourself in action. You gift yourself twice, once by taking your actions and the other by showing reverent appreciation to yourself for taking loving actions. Your actions define what love-in-motion is.
Self Love Tip #4: Practice Self Love Through Gifts & Gratitude
To experience a well-delivered gift takes thought, contemplation, and a special knowing of your needs and wants. A wonderful way to love yourself well is simply the act of giving to yourself. To embody the act of giving and receiving by your own hand is an elevated form of love and gratitude because it is two deeds combined.
When giving to yourself size does not matter. However, meaning is everything.
Explore Making Special Self Gifting Moments
Invest in Yourself. Save what you can for 3 months, 6 months, or even a year. Use the outcome of your savings stockpile as a means to acquire a special item, especially for you. See the power of setting regular intentions to invest in giving to you.
Create a Joyful Awakening. Make your mornings special by placing a bottle of water, bowl of fruit, or scented candle by your bed. Wake up in remembrance that you went to sleep with thoughts of making your morning perfect.
Be Sweet to Yourself. Have your favorite treat tucked in the back of your freezer or in your purse just for you. This should not be just any treat, but a special delicacy or nostaglic whim that you took the time to find just for you.
Surprise Yourself. Put a treasured photo in your planner in a future date just to make you smile. Make sure to hide it away so that your mind can lose remembrance of it and you can truly surprise later, possibly just when you needed it.
Escape with Yourself. Take a solo drive through a beautiful neighborhood on an early Saturday morning just because it pleases you and gives you peace. Take photos of your adventure or journal about your time and how it made you feel.
Be Creatively Kind in Showing Yourself Love with Intention
No one knows you the way that you know you. And while it is precious to receive from others, waiting for others to get it right can take a lifetime. Give the best and most perfectly selected gifts to yourself. Treasure that you know yourself enough to know exactly what to get or what to do.
Wash your bedsheets with your favorite essential oil or add your favorite scent to your shampoo.
Gather fresh wildflowers or pine cones in a bowl as your gift of nature to you for your desk or at home.
Take 30 minutes to pull together your favorite love songs playlist that speaks to how you love others or, most importantly, how you love yourself.
Be mindful of the thoughtfulness behind the gifts you give to yourself. Let your thoughts reflect what is important to you, what is sentimental to you, and what represents joy in physical form. You deserve to be seen in love and light and to be shown gratitude for your presence.
Self love through gifts and gratitude demonstrates the intimate self awareness you have of yourself and the opportunity to give self love in the most special of ways.
Self Love Tip#5: Practice Self Love with Body Care
So often it is thought that to enjoy the sensation of touch we must engage with something outside of ourselves. But learning to share kindness with your own body can be the greatest gift of self love.
Self-attention through touch can be meaningful and nurturing. There is an opportunity in each day to slow down, become present, and feel different in our own hands.
Taking a shower provides space to wash your hair and gift yourself with a scalp massage. Especially using the soft elixir of a fragrant conditioner, both your head and your hands can enjoy the process.
Consider the sensations of cleansing your body with intention. Attend to every part of you as a loving way to say that every part of you is important. Know the feel of each part of your body, especially those parts that may not always get attention.
After exiting a bath or shower, take the time to provide yourself with a full body massage with oils and creams. A beautiful expression of self love and personal attention can be had through Ayurvedic self-massage. Combining the care and caress of your skin with the relaxation of your muscles can be refreshing.
Placing the kindness of your body in your own hands can be a perfect expression of self love one touch at a time. Your attention to every subtle detail is how your self love commitment comes to life.
Conclusion
The practice of self love is an intimate expression of love especially for you by you.
When you are able to define what love means to you and then take on accountability to give love to yourself, you provide an endless channel of loving experiences for yourself. Prioritize self love to know and appreciate yourself more and to provide opportunities for more kindness, calm, beauty, and special memories in your life.
You are the most important person in your life. Take action to show your importance to yourself. Through regular practice of self love and care in how it is delivered, you will experience an even better version of yourself.
Start applying these truly intimate self love tips today and see how your self love can be life-changing for you.
How do you practice your self love? Are you inspired to love yourself with intention for the first time? Share your story in the Comments below. And take a look at these post for more ideas too!
Working for the worst person on earth can feel like you’re living the worst life on the planet. It is even more painful when in order to keep your job you have to keep working for the boss you hate.
If you have tried but cannot correct your relationship with your difficult boss, you can feel like you have nowhere to turn.
What can you do so that you can keep your sanity and still work for this person?
The key to bad boss survival is to relinquish the attempt to control that which you cannot. Instead empower yourself. Because if you can control nothing else, you can at least control yourself.
Here are a few Difficult Boss Survival Tips to boost your self empowerment and to take the focus from your difficult boss to your awesome job.
Tip#1: Reclaim Your Personal Power
Once you have decided that your boss drives you crazy, you simultaneously have decided to give your power away.
Your boss only controls your emotions if you let them.
The problem becomes that you quickly build evidence to support your case.
You can’t have a good day when your boss is in the office
Everything you do is clearly wrong according to your boss
You might as well not even come to work because your boss couldn’t care less anyway
The very person that you don’t like or respect is the same person that you look to for being liked and respected. And you give this difficult boss full power to affect your mood, your focus, and your total outlook.
It’s Time to Take Your Power Back!
Make your opinions your priority
If you care about how you feel, then you need to claim ownership of managing how you feel.
Do not attach your personal self worth to the words, actions, and opinions received from your boss. Instead, consider the feedback and weigh for yourself if it is useful or just plain garbage.
Unless you work for yourself, you will likely have another person responsible to review and make opinions about your work and about you as a worker. But that does not mean that the person fulfilling that responsibility is good at their job at all times.
So why would you blindly trust the opinion of your boss, especially if your boss is rude, inappropriate, or just plain difficult?
Now this is not to suggest that you ignore the very real reality of a terrible boss situation. But it is to suggest that you do not continuously ignore your need for a healthy and peaceful life.
And there is no way to gain peace from permitting someone else to constantly put you on your defensive. So empower yourself to place your opinion above all others. And reduce or even ignore the feedback that does not serve you.
Tip#2: Boost Your Positive Self-Talk
One form of self empowerment that can work wonders immediately and grow over time is to build a habit of positive self talk.
We each hold constant conversation with ourselves all the time. And we can be subject to making others feedback part of our playback in our mind. The last thing that you want to do is to make a difficult boss’s negativity a regular part of your feedback loop.
Instead of doubting yourself or wondering if what your boss says is true, focus your attention with reconfirming the best parts of you to you. One mechanism to train internal reinforcement is through the regular use of positive affirmations.
Using positive affirmations on a consistent basis can help to make front-of-mind statements that serve to emposer you versus deplete you. They can also serve to provide you a more positive and optimistic focus and at same time deter you from obsessing on the unwelcomed opinions of your boss.
Choosing the right positive affirmations is important because you want to aligned with what you are saying to yourself. False compliment or insincere hype just won’t do. But when you can regularly reflect to yourself what you know to be true of your strengths, you will very quickly dispel from your mind anyone telling you a lie about yourself.
A positive affirmation habit helps to boost self confidence, promote self empowerment, and engrain self love all while making your boss a more tolerable person to be around.
Tip#3: Increase Your Productivity at Work
You may not be in love with your boss but you may absolutely love your job.
Even if you are not at the peak of your performance, if you love what you do you can find joy in getting better and better at it.
Taking the time to build passion in your work and find ways to create improved quality, efficiency, and effectiveness in what you do can feel extremely rewarding. Often when you improve the work that you perform, you also improve the working experience of your team, your internal customers, and even your boss.
Having passion for your work and feeling proud of your performance can be a much-needed distraction from a boss who can seem to make any day miserable. Ironically as you continue to perform well in your role, it can reduce negativity from your boss or at least have them place their attention on something other than you.
Creative ways to find passion in your work
When you have been consumed with a bad boss’s bad behavior, you may not immediately be in the mental state of how to do your job better.
But once you have committed to creating a fresh start in your role, you may find that leaving your ugly past in the past makes you more ready than you would have realized.
To further build this momentum, you can dive right into one or more of these types of ideas:
Join or start a new project team for process improvement
Have lunch or connect purposely with other creative-thinking staff regularly
Give positive feedback to others who have implemented new processes or who have accomplished new achievements
Examine your process flow and find ways to perfect it that help you and your co-workers
Set micro-targets to be completed by midday or business close and track when you hit your goals
Clean, organize and refresh your workspace
Notice that every suggestion is not meant to explode your work-life and start again. Big or small, personal or interconnected, you have the ability to make changes to your work experience that can have a positive impact on how you feel about work.
The goal is to spark passion in your environment where there once was bitterness, disdain, and dread. Find your way to create a better work life than the one that you have been experiencing before.
As an added note, be sure to choose tasks and activities within your control and that do not cause conflict with your boss. The last thing you want is to build more negativity or animosity in your relationship. Focus on the tasks that will make you feel productive, invested, and happy and most of that help you shift your perspective and feelings about your job.
Tip#5: Invest More Time on Your Long-Term Career Goals
For you, your job may be more than just what pays the bills but also what provides you with growth toward your long-term professional goals.
This means that your time at work is an investment. And, ideally, you want to receive a return on your investment.
Distractions, emotional turmoil, and communication strain with your difficult boss can wreak havoc on your learning and progression at work. This is not and cannot be acceptable when you have much more to lose than your temper when dealing with your boss.
Remaining mindful and vigilant of your long-term goals can provide you with a more meaningful focus than worrying over your ill-tempered boss. View your situation as temporary and only a step toward the much more significant professional goals that you have for yourself.
Professional development is learned well beyond a classroom
If you can find your way to achieve your goals despite your terrible boss, you may find this skill to be even more significant and practical than the ones you have set out to learn.
There are many soft skills that you can obtain by working through tough situations with a difficult boss.
Plus, today it is your boss. At your next job, it could be your co-worker. After that, it could be the leader of your department, division, or company that makes life at work more than a little bit miserable.
See these challenges as opportunities to fine-tune your skills and to prepare you for dealing with any situation you walk into.
Which courses could you practically teach just because you had to navigate through working with your difficult boss now:
Conflict Management
Dealing with Difficult People
Managing Emotions
Effective Communication Skills
How to Lead Up
After a year with your boss, you may feel like you definitely deserve a reward or at least have earned a certificate!
And while you may not have wanted to be subjected to learning these skills against your will, they can still serve you in and outside of work.
Find your way to let the burdens with your boss become your blessings and you may become better for it in more ways than you first realized.
Tip#6: Focus on the Positive
Your boss may seem all bad, but maybe there are a few positive features that you can find if you change your focus.
This is not an invitation to fool yourself about the realities of your boss’s bad behavior. But it is an opportunity to soften the disdain that you feel for your boss if only for your own benefit.
Carrying regular negativity toward your boss can slant your vision and cause you to start to see everything wrong, even when it’s not there. This preoccupation can start to make the scope of your problem bigger and bigger and consume your focus on anything else.
Seeing your boss in balance can provide you relief in-between the times when you truly have a negative interaction and when you don’t. Softening your gaze can relieve your own tension and stress and pause your negative disposition. This break from your negative reality can be just what’s needed when you start to feel that you cannot go on like this anymore.
It is important to remember that your boss is just a person. In their imperfection as a human being, they will make mistakes, act out of turn, and may project their negativity onto others without thought.
This alone, however, does not mean they have no other attributes to share.
Signs your difficult boss is not all bad
Your boss may be an excellent team member but a terrible leader. They may possess strong expertise in writing but have no clue how to speak to people. It is possible that they can be great with numbers but lack people skills. You may be surprised to learn that they are an exceptional parent, friend, or teammate out of work but become a whole different person when facing the pressures at the job.
Look for the humanity in your boss as a way to understand them better. You may not accept the treatment you receive but you may at least become aware of the different parts that make up their character.
This may help you to remove your emotional attachment to their negative behavior towards you. It may also help to create different emotional pathways toward them when focusing on the better parts of them.
Intentionally looking for the best in your boss may lead to you stumbling across common interests, passions, or ideas. As a result, you may develop a different type of connection with your boss. Freeing yourself from the negative focus on your boss may open up a channel for positive experiences to come in.
Important Bonus Tip
While there can be a purpose in making the best out of a bad situation, there are times when poor leadership relationships are more complex.
You have to be clear and honest with yourself about your relationship with your boss. And when emotions are involved the core problem can be difficult to decipher.
Is your boss truly micro-managing you because of a character flaw or is there a significant, stressful, and high-pressure project underway that your boss is meant to lead to 100% perfection?
Are you subjected daily to hostility and aggression or did your boss lose their temper once or twice having a bad day?
Have you been unjustly targeted and mistreated by your boss or have you been regularly underperforming, coming in late, and backing up the process flow amongst your team?
Sometimes the reason why we feel bothered by our boss is because we have not bothered to take an honest look at ourselves. Or expect far more understanding, compassion, and second chances than what a business can handle giving, let alone your boss.
Taking accountability for yourself, your behavior and performance, and the reality that your boss has a job to do can introduce a new prospective and different opportunities to correct the problem of a difficult boss.
Knowing when it’s more than just a difficult boss
On the other hand, sometimes we deal with a bad situation much longer than what we should. You may be in this situation if you have ongoingly been dealing with unwarranted hostility, aggressive words and posturing, gaslighting, and belittling by your superior.
Know the difference between a tough boss and a bad boss creating a hostile work environment:
Name calling, sarcastic innuendos, and public belittling especially related to your gender, race, or ethnic background is never okay
Lack of boundaries where you feel like your body is unsafe, closeness has sexual overtones, or you cannot have privacy even when using the restroom should not be considered normal
Being threatened to be put in an unfavorable job, lose your pay, denied access to a promotion, or other impact to your career or financial well-being is not acceptable behavior
Look at your situation as objectively as you can to ensure that what you may have classified as uncomfortable but normal is way beyond normal.
Sometimes a bad boss is really a bad boss that needs serious intervention. It may take quite a bit of courage but for your own well-being you may need to report the situation to a higher-level leader or your human resources department. In extreme situations even outside legal counsel or the authorities may need to get involved. And in the most dire yet unresolved situations, you may need to quit.
Trust your gut and your judgment. Ask yourself if you would be okay if what is happening to you were happening to someone that you love. What would you advise someone else to do?
If the treatment that you have been subject to is far from acceptable to happen at work, make the best decision for what serves you in the best way right away.
Conclusion
Dealing with a boss that you hate can make coming to work every day a job in itself. Find your way to take control of your work experience and place your focus on what serves you best.
Your boss is not the only person who has an impact on you and your work experience. Take control of what you can do to direct your attention and engagement with your work and with others. See the opportunity in creating meaning and enjoyment in your job.
Your boss may be easy to hate but making your job easy to love can make the total experience worth having.
If you have tried all the tips and tricks and still can’t take another day, it may be time to find another job. Here are some resources to help you along the way.
You need to live a balanced life. Or at least that is what you say to yourself. But where did that idea come from?
Somewhere the narrative created was that a balanced life equals a happy life. There is nothing wrong with that math, except no one shared how to solve the equation.
You can say, “I want to live a balanced life so that I can be happy now”. But what do you do next?
Think of all the questions that come with solving this mystery:
What if you don’t know how to become balanced?
How do you control the balance in your life if everything that makes you feel imbalanced is someone or something other than you?
When do you know that you have achieved balance and, if you do, how do you keep it?
Can you live a happy life and not be in balance?
These are just samples of what comes to mind around the subject of happiness and balance. The good news is that you are not broken, off track, or a bad person if you don’t know how to answer these questions.
The real answer is that there is no one answer. But you can create a solution that works for you and lets you feel less broken and more balanced. Here are 7 Tips for What to Do When You Feel Broken and Need More Balance in Your Life.
Tip #1: Claim Your Definition for a Balanced Life
You are the only one who can create the definition of balance for yourself. You are the master carpenter erecting the structure that is your day-to-day life.
This empowered position is an excellent starting point toward gaining the joy in your life that you want. And it is the kick-off point to establishing exactly how to achieve the balance you believe you should have.
You, and only you, get to decide.
How to define your everyday balance
While you may not know what balance for you is in this moment, you have every day of your life to create your definition.
Balance for you can mean that you are able to well juggle the obligations of family, work, personal health, and finances, or
It could also mean that you are able to be equally mindful of your goals for your physical well-being, your educational pursuits, and your spiritual priorities, or
You may want to have a fabulous career, raise a beautiful family, and also travel the world, or
You may just want to pursue one idea, one dream, or one plan at a time.
Life overflows with potential and opportunity. You decide what options are the ones that make sense to you and for you.
Choose which life experiences lend to what you are and which ones pull away from where you want to be. You do not have to do everything and you do not have to make all things a priority.
By mindfully selecting the life experiences that are meaningful and enriching to you, you have the opportunity for defining your happiness. And you decide the amount of time, attention, and focus you dedicate to the experiences that you want to have.
In this way, you have defined balance by what you choose to do and what you elect not to do. When you place the most focus on what you love you have a better chance of experiencing a life that you love.
Tip #2: Learn What Balance Feels Like to You
Feel good music just feels good
Sometimes words just don’t do justice to describing a feeling. Feelings are meant to be…..felt.
Trying to define balance as a feeling can therefore be difficult. However, it is important to define the feeling of balance for yourself so that you can recognize when you have achieved it.
Balance can take on many characteristics based on what life experiences are at any moment.
Go to bed on time and wake up feeling rested
Complete the work you planned in your day and leave work feeling productive.
Spend time with your kids playing ball in the backyard and after you’re feeling energized and thankful
Step out of your 20-minute shower feeling fresh and relaxed
You take all of these parts and pieces and reflect upon them before you go to sleep. And you say to yourself, you had a good day. Defining and then prioritizing these experiences can create good feeling days, weeks and months.
The summary may be that you simply feel good. But if asked, you may also say that you feelbalanced.
Give language and meaning to your balance
It may be hard to describe your feelings let alone know what invokes them within you. But when your balance matters to you, you want to make clear when you have it so you can repeat it again and again.
The sensation of
being in flow
achieving your goals
satisfying others’ needs
enjoying the people you love
gaining your wants and desires, or
receiving unexpected but pleasant surprises
All of these and more can feel like balance to you.
Defining and feeling the experiences that create joy is how you define and feel being in balance.
Tip #3: Embrace Your Imbalance
Imbalance in life is not exactly the opposite of balance.
If balance equals good feelings and happy experiences, being out of balance does not necessarily equal bad feelings and unhappy events.
A lack of balance can be chaotic or it can be fun. It can be irrational or spontaneous. When you realize that life is never perfect you can appreciate the perfect chaos that is life.
Find balance in the pleasure of a little imperfection
You can find hidden benefits in many aspects of life where you least expect it. The trick is not to fall to pieces when imbalance shows its ugly head.
Dinner burned? Perfect time for pizza night!
Boss created a new project in the middle of your day? Perfect opportunity to learn something new and abandon your same old boring tasks!
Left your wallet at home when trying to checkout at the store? Guess you’ll spend a little more time listening to your favorite song in the car on your way back home!
The bottom line is that you dictate what imbalance is to you. And don’t let life’s imperfections take your balance away from you.
Imbalance can be embraced as a welcomed part of life. It can be an opportunity for gratitude in all that life has to offer, the ups and the downs, and everything in between.
Tip#4: Believe That Imbalance Can Actually Make You Better
The reality is that living an imbalanced life can be a significant part of achieving happiness.
When you are cramming for an exam or prepping for a major presentation, you may not sleep for 2 days, barely eat, and talk to no one. But the outcome of this extreme focus may be the biggest accomplishment you have ever experienced.
A relationship gone bad can make you laser-focused on the type of romance most important to you. A job you must quit can create a desire for a business you must build.
When big transitions happen, you may first only see the pain in the situation. And that’s okay.
Your biggest deviations from balance can inspire your most substantial dreams for blissful existence.
You can be on top of the world tomorrow just because you allowed yourself to live in imbalance today.
Understand when imbalance can serve you, educate you, and even motivate you to become more.
Your living in imbalance can be the way that you define your goal of balance with better clarity and increased certainty.
Tip#5: Learn to Navigate Through Imbalance (Life on The Curve)
There is another side to imbalance. That’s the imbalance burn that sets the whole forest on fire.
The times when you become consumed in any one area of your life and feel as if you completely neglected all other priorities.
Your family suffers because your work has become your everything.
Your relationship suffers because you have placed your children on a pedestal above everything else.
Your own health wanes because you have to make sure that everyone else in your life gets your time and energy.
When you abandon balance for obsession on any subject for too long, you drain the essence from all the other aspects of life that bring you joy.
The assortment of pleasures that life has to offer is there for you to make the most out of your life. When you sacrifice the all for the one, you simultaneously choose to limit your access to life’s pleasures.
Gaining joy, pleasure, happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment in life is what gives life its purpose.
Limiting your access to these treasures can make life feel like a purposeless burden.
Sometimes bad balance is just good sense
The reality is that life may call upon you to be imbalanced at times:
a sick child
a serious work obligation
a parent in need
an almost foreclosed home
These are not the times to worry over your life balance. These are times when true balance is putting all your focus on the one, big thing and knowing that other parts of your life pale in comparison. And it’s not only necessary, but it’s okay.
Know the difference when what could appear as an imbalanced approach is actually a well-balanced decision.
Bonus Tip: Don’t Let Yourself Hide in the Imbalance
Some parts of life demand acting with urgency and treating parts of your life as an emergency. But there are also times when imbalance can become an unhealthy habit through patterned avoidance.
There are parts of your life that can be damaged or difficult and not an immediate source of happiness for you. So, to avoid having to confront the challenge of correcting these problems, you may elect to be imbalanced and focus all of your attention where you can feel better.
Initially, this is not a poor choice or a bad option. Placing attention on the areas of life that provide you joy can lead to feelings of balance that can eventually be shared across all subjects. You are allowed to fill your cup in any way that you choose that puts you in the best space to live your best life.
But perpetual avoidance can become an addiction.
Living only in safe spaces can be another way that life becomes limited
If you only live to work because this is where you succeed, then what happens when work becomes dysfunctional and you lose your only source of joy?
Your work cannot love you like a spouse or guide you like a parent. But you may misplace your needs for care and attention in unhealthy places because you have avoided nurturing other aspects of your life from where it should naturally come.
And when the one place you put all of your energy into falls apart, you have nowhere left to turn.
Purposeful imbalance due to obsessive pain avoidance can lead to a very unhappy life.
Creating ways to balance life through a diversity of joyful outlets can make finding balance a much easier mission to tackle. Even when some areas of life need a little work, focusing on the prospect of a better condition can create joy in the process.
Avoiding a problem may seem like a quick and easy resolution but can lead away from the much bigger picture of a better and more balanced life.
Conclusion: Create Your Version of a Balanced Life
Now that you have defined your balance, your imbalance, and gained clarity of purpose and feeling, it’s time to live what you know.
Living as balanced is an everyday adventure. Take time to explore and identify the different parts of life that you see as a priority. Intentionally set as priority those aspects of life that bring the most joy and happiness, even if that means a little work involved to get them to their fullest potential.
Take pride in yourself when you have chosen imbalance as a way to propel yourself into a more favorable place. Remember it is okay to trade a little pain for a lot of gains. Be mindful to not let your imbalance tip the scales and take you to a negative place. Too much of a good thing can be bad, and too much of a bad thing can be devastating.
Find ways to fill your cup, regain your focus, and live life with purpose. You choose what a balanced life looks life and feels like.
Remember, you are not broken if balance is not in your life today, but you can decide every day if you need to be balanced.
Creating life balance is the key to living a better life.
It is energizing to live each day in flow. And it is empowering to feel that no matter what comes there is comfort that awaits you. Knowing that you are in balance gives both a sense of relaxation and excited anticipation to any day.
However, imbalance is also a part of life. At times it can seem like the only part of life that you are living.
The days strung together when it feels that nothing is in flow. The moments when nothing goes as planned and the worst scenario seems to just keep showing up. These are the times when you just want the day to stop and start over.
Feel empowered to know that you don’t have to remove the experience of imbalance to have a good life.
You couldn’t even if you wanted to. But that’s okay. Make peace with your times of imbalance and learn ways to regain balance once it has been lost.
Take a look at these 7 ways of creating life balance when imbalance has become way too much of your life.
1. Give Yourself Grace
Sometimes life is just hard and it’s okay to say it
Giving yourself grace is permitting yourself to simply be human when things fall apart. Be angry, cry, feel defeated, and frustrated. It’s human to feel bad when it seems like everything could get no worse.
Sometimes the fastest way to regain balance is to release trying to have it. (Yes, you read that right).
Pause in your discomfort and honor that your emotions exist and feel them. Even when it feels the worst try to accept your feelings instead of pushing them away.
Beyond the hurt, what do your emotions tell you?
Are you disappointed in yourself for not trying harder?
Did someone you love betray your trust?
Have you given up on trying because you fear failure too much?
Do you criticize yourself more than loving yourself out of habit?
Acknowledge where you are. Give yourself grace for getting there. And learn what you can from the experience.
Developing a habit of pause and reflection in the midst of imbalance and emotional disarray permits you to build the muscle of self awareness. It is from here that you can move forward with purpose and direction.
How does self awareness help with creating life balance?
Self awareness gives space to experience your thoughts and emotions and examine your personal interpretation of them. You can give yourself time to answer the simple questions of “what do I feel” and “why?”
In absence of taking this reflective moment, you can become lost in your emotion and directionless in your actions solely inspired by your discomfort. This aimless movement can create even more painful imbalance.
In these moments you can
turn on yourself simply for being in a poor emotional state
frantically spin your wheels trying to blindly fix everything that’s wrong
blame others for your emotional state and blast others for their wrongdoings
become hopeless and wayward with no understanding of how to stop your pain
All of these conclusions come sweeping in when all of your energy is placed on removing your pain and not learning from it. You want your world back in control now!
Grace is accepting when everything is out of control it is time to stop trying to control it and just let all things be. In this way, you begin healing for yourself, acceptance of everything around you, and creating balance.
2. Invoke the Power of Positive Self Talk
What you say to you matters so think before you speak
Words are powerful. Therefore, there is good reason to choose your words wisely or suffer the consequence of self-created imbalance.
As if a mantra, you can at times repeat over and over again all the negatives about yourself or your experiences.
This is a horrible day.
Why is everything going wrong?
Here we go again!
I’m an idiot.
I can make a mess of everything!!!
The list of imbalanced words and phrases has no end and so with it no end to the problems that come with it. The words that we repeat become the reality that we live. When we speak negativity to ourselves then a moment of discomfort can become a full day of regret.
You are the key to the life that you manifest and your words are instruments in the making of it.
In the midst of imbalance, you may not be able to change what you are facing. But you can change the words you say, think, or repeat.
Choose to soothe yourself instead of aggravating your frazzled nerves more. Start small but purposefully. Try affirming to yourself,
“it will be okay” or,
“I know I am doing my best”, or
“it can only get better from here”
Be creative with your means for creating life balance through your words by singing a song that you enjoy or reciting a prayer or poem that brings you peace.
Choose words with emotions that represent where you want to be even if you feel very different in the present. Affirm the balance that you aspire to experience.
10 Positive Affirmations for Creating Life Balance
I know that as things get better and I will get happier and happier
Tomorrow is a new day and I can’t wait to wake up to a good morning
I am thankful for every peaceful and relaxing experience I have ever had
I am grateful for the calm I give my mind through focus
I appreciate feelings of relief and conclusion
I embrace the all experiences that life brings
Every day that I am I have another opportunity to just be
I am proud of myself because I try
I love myself and all that I am
I create balance in my life and am grateful to myself for doing it
Say the words that you need to hear to become the balance you need to have.
3. Champion Your Own Chivalry
Protect your needs for well-being and your right to balance
To take care of another before oneself is only one form of chivalry. Do not hesitate to become the champion of courtesy and honor for yourself.
Put a gallant effort toward defending your right to peace when imbalance has seemingly taken over your life. You can be your own knight in shining armor. Take the necessary actions to smite the sources of the imbalance that confront you.
Make choices that honor your personal needs for importance, priority, andself-care. And be proud to take life balance as a reward.
Chivalrous actions you may take for yourself can include:
Leaving work early whenever the day permits it
Deciding not to answer a phone call to reduce your distractions
Escaping for a private moment within your work day by getting water, taking a walk, or even going to the bathroom
So often we deny ourselves simple courtesies in exchange for pleasing others or satisfying imbalanced expectations of ourselves.
Make decisions that serve you and become an ambassador of your sanctity and sanity. When life becomes too much it is okay to pause what you can so that you are in a better place to handle what comes.
Be chivalrous to yourself regularly and you may thwart many occasions of imbalance on the horizon.
4. Relax and Replenish Your System
Recharging your battery gives you the energy to stay strong when you need it most
Within the most basic human functions lays the most critical of needs, replenishment.
Rest, relaxation, and sleep each serves to provide replenishment to the body. Replenishment of the body secures a foundation whereby you are in the best condition to perform at your highest capacity.
The pressures, stresses, and frustrations of the day are regular occurrences that place a demand upon your physical and mental disposition. Replenishment is a defense against these attacks on your balance and provides you the strength to carry on.
When feeling imbalanced examine your rest, relaxation, and sleep schedule, and if poor, address it immediately and with urgency.
Fighting the internal war of fatigue will invite imbalance and potentially subject you to even more. This can leave you without the strength to find your way to balance.
Know also that replenishment is more than sleep, though getting the length and depth of rest through sleep is important. Other forms of replenishment exist too:
While replenishment will not always cure imbalance by itself, it can provide you with centeredness that can support your return-to-balance journey.
5. Create a Space to Reclaim Your Balance
10 minutes of peace and positive focus can feel like a miracle
When your whole world has toppled and there is confusion everywhere you look, finding respite in your sanctuary away from the storm can immediately make you feel better.
Create a space that provides you with access to your balance even if only temporarily.
Balance at Work
Let a simple image transport you to another place
You may find that at work your place of balance is your desk, your locker, or even your screensaver.
Here you can place positive messages, photos of family, or a memento that has special meaning to you. Create an inspired, peaceful vision and gain the power to provide calm within your line of sight.
At home, it may be your bedroom or a spare room where you find your quiet place of peace from the world.
Dedicate any small corner to include symbols or images of calm that are meaningful to you. A small candle or a place to burn fragrant incense can be enough. A beautiful bouquet of flowers can touch your spirit and invoke a recall to balance.
Visiting your sacred space or creating one for the first time can represent giving to yourself. This gift of balance can be critical when it feels like the whole world is only taking. Display items that have a special meaning that provide a sense of grounding and control in an otherwise chaotic existence.
Imbalance can seem to walk with you no matter where you go. But creating a space for peace can allow you to release your burdens and step into balance when needed.
6. Connect with Nature
No matter the season or time of day, it may be a perfect opportunity to step into nature when you feel that imbalance abounds. There is almost always an opportunity to experience nature if you choose to prioritize the experience.
When the walls feel as if they are closing in and the place you stand feels unstable, turn your sights to your nearest window or open door.
Close your eyes and take a deep breath allowing fresh air to fill your lungs and graze across your body
Take a walk and focus your attention on every planted step as you feel the surety of solid ground supporting your stride
Look to the sky and embrace the beauty, expansiveness, and freedom of a never-ending horizon
Nature represents simplicity but also manifests itself in substantial ways representing the eternal access to balance in life.
How can nature help when creating life balance?
When creating life balance we can look to engage with nature and claim our place with its natural harmony:
Watch the movement of life around you. Birds in the trees, squirrels running across the ground, people bustling to their destinations all represent the beauty of intersected life around you.
Allow your skin to feel the rays of the sun or the coolness of raindrops on a cloudy day. The connection between you and the elements is a reminder of your union with the world.
Take in the fragrance of sweet flowers in the spring, freshly mowed grass in the summer, or falling leaves from majestic trees carried in the wind on a fall day. Allow the subtleties of life to show how easily calm can seep into your day.
Go out and experience the abundance of eternal balance that surrounds you. And reassure yourself that your personal balance is only steps away at any moment.
7. Find Your Tribe
Surround yourself with loved ones when you need it most
There is no rule that your road to balance must be traveled alone. So when you find yourself in the thrusts of imbalance make use of your resources.
When you are fortunate enough to have special people in your life, trust in the strength of your relationship that they will want to support you.
Loyal companions who always have a positive disposition and a helping hand to lend are a treasure. Good people with good dispositions are great resources to have.
When your path has gotten too dim for you to find your way home alone, a good friend will act as a lighthouse across your dark sea and guide you back to balance.
A burden shared between two people can be much lighterweight than a crushing problem held by one
Remember also, you may not always have access to live support every time you need it. Late-night hours, travel, or just life can make it hard to connect with family and friends at times.
So it is important to also build a tribe of indirect connections and support to guide your journey towards balance.
The vehicles of peace are endless. Search for support and know that it is always there.
These resources can come in the form of musicians, artists, writers, podcasters, YouTubers, bloggers, and more. At a moment’s notice, no matter the time day or night, you can tap into their message and be transported to a better place.
Listen to music. Create playlists designed to lift your spirits when needed
Read a book or your favorite highlighted passage
Watch a motivational video or a heartwarming movie
Learn from an online educator a new way to ease your stress or bring order to your life
Your favorite artists, creators, and entertainers can be your lifeline in bad times.
Curate your tribe with care and reap the rewards of partnered effort towards balance. Invest in creating your team for balance and see the fruits of your labor flourish with positive connections and peace.
Conclusion
While imbalance is a part of life, and not always an enjoyable part, balance also exists.
The path of moving from the discomfort of imbalance to creating life balance can be challenging but achievable. Find comfort in knowing that any struggle is only temporary by nature.
The keys to creating life balance are to accept your imbalance, learn from it, and use your learning to choose the best path ahead. Ready your tools and resources so you can gain the support you require on your path and feel empowered on your life journey always.
Take command of your ability to create balance in your life. And know that no amount of imbalance can keep you from living the quality of life you choose to live. When you prepare ahead for the imbalance you know to come, you can be in the best position to bring yourself back to the balance that keeps you whole.
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Have you found the perfect way to face imbalance in your daily life? Share your method in the Comments section below.
Affirmations for confidence when leaving your job may seem like a strange thing to need. But quitting your job is a significant life decision.
Making changes in your career can cause you to reexamine your understanding of yourself, your goals, and your purpose in life. You take what you are and what you are doing and determine if you really are living the match you intended.
Once making the decision to move on, even with this close examination, you can start to doubt your decision. Instead of doubting yourself, take time to affirm your intentions.
Affirmations can serve as a powerful tool to:
Reconfirm Internal Knowing
Build Confidence in your ability to make personally aligned decisions, and
Create Momentum when taking your path forward
Know first that satisfying your practical needs in life, like earning money or having access to medical insurance, does not have to come at the sacrifice of Living Your Best Life.
Quitting your job does not have to be the catalyst to chaos but instead can be the Path To Freedom and the opportunity to live your life AND earn your living in the best way possible.
To reconfirm this critical knowledge, it is necessary to affirm to yourself that You Are On the Right Path.
Taking these steps can be a start to building confidence in your decision.
Below are the best Affirmations For Confidence to start your path toward your best decision.
Positive Affirmation #1: I Trust My Gut
LISTEN TO YOUR GUT
Your gut is your intuition. It is your Divine Guidance at work.
For many, however, you can also literally feel a sensation when your gut is speaking.
Maybe you feel tightness in your abdomen in response to situations that cause stress, or concern, or put you on alert.
Conversely, you can feel butterflies when trying new things or when excitedly anticipating the pleasures of life.
This is part of your gut’s language, its means of communicating with you.
Your gut is your personal guide and it should be trusted.
The more you trust your intuition, the more empowered you become, the stronger you become, and the happier you become.
Gisele Bundchen
When you repeatedly feel as though you are not aligned with the work you do, the people you work for, or the company that you keep while at work, your gut will speak to you in tangible ways, especially when your mind may be ignoring the signs.
If you know that
you are making less than what your job is worth,
you are being treated inappropriately or unfairly by your boss,
you are not going to gain opportunities to advance where you are and advancement is your goal,
first your mind will perceive it but then your gut will speak it.
You will get all the internal alarms ringing and signaling that something has to change.
What Your Gut Feels, You Feel
Do not become complacent to the point of sickness, constant anger, worry, panic, fear, or worse, overly questioning your internal knowing.
Trust instead that you have been provided a tool which has been, for your whole life, gaining more and more understanding and alignment of communicating consciously to you.
Survey your mind to assess your situation and trust your gut to point you to the right conclusion. It may simply be time to quit your job.
Positive Affirmation#2: I Know What To Do
“I would leave, but HOW?”
That is the question of all questions that almost everyone asks themselves when faced with big hairy decisions. How?
Sometimes Questions Come Before Answers; It’s Okay
By now you know that your personal life journey will always be filled with daunting circumstances that will challenge your skills, aptitudes, judgments, and thinking.
But remember too that, at this stage of your life, you have faced and conquered many challenges already. And you have figured out “the how” of many complicated things, likely more than what you give yourself credit for.
Don’t walk away from this challenge so as to keep the convenience of familiarity, because at the same time you give away your opportunity for personal growth and life balance.
Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.
Les brown
Transitioning from your job is just a puzzle to be solved, just like the 101 that you have already faced in the last month, last year, and last decade. You know that creating a simple plan of action and following up with execution can create an abundance of rewards for the effort.
Affirm. You can do this. And You Know What To Do.
You can create an opportunity that far exceeds the job you are settling for today.
Your sound mind, body, and spirit will serve as the tools you use on this journey and also as the reward for having taken the steps forward.
You are equipped to quit your job.
Affirmation #3: I Am Confident That Now IS the Right Time
Time is a convenient master. Often we become concerned with time only when we are concerned with control or have been the subject of control by others.
Release the Bonds of Time
In reality, time is boundless. And when you relieve yourself of the opinion of others or free yourself from your own ill scrutiny you provide yourself the gift of any time being the right time.
Quitting your job is not a timing issue, it is an alignment issue. Either at this moment you are aligned with your job or you are not.
The decision to quit is made in a moment.
The plan to leave is timed with the steps that you decide to include to transition well.
You choose the timing for each step that best suits how you want to feel through each moment of your journey.
If you require more savings, you may provide yourself more time at your current job to build your nest egg, or you may leave immediately and take on an interim alternative job that is not a drain on your spirit while you save.
You may plan to remain another month or you may give 2 weeks’ notice today. What timing creates both internal balance and forward momentum for you?
What is immediate, and likely already to have happened, is your decision to go. Time is never a factor in your knowing. It is alive and active in every moment you breathe.
The answer to when is the right time, therefore, is that there can never be a wrong time. The right time is always now.
I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.
rosa parks
Positive Affirmation #4: Failure Is Not My Destiny
The fear of failure is at the heart of all indecision.
But standing still is not the cure for failure or the key to success.
When you are meant to grow, flourish and evolve, the lack of moving toward your future is the main ingredient for assured failure.
It is important beyond all else to know that failure is not your destiny.
Failure is, however, a part of the hundred possible outcomes of life.
It is a probability that you can plan for and one that you can navigate should you find yourself in its clutch. Failure may come into your life, but it doesn’t have to take it.
You Decide If Successes Outweigh Your Failures
If your goal is to
become better at what you do,
fulfilled and aligned in what you do, and
grateful for what you have in your life because of what you are able to do,
failure is not an obstacle but a welcomed indicator proving that you are striving for all that you deserve.
No one can promise you that you will not fail. Butyou can promise yourself that you will never give up.
In your commitment to your journey and your highest self, you will know with conviction that quitting your job is your only option.
It’s time to move on and to allow yourself to become more.
Affirm what you know to be true. You can quit your job and achieve a better life.
Ready to Follow Your Intuition On This?
Here is your starter kit for taking your best step forward from here:
1. Do Your Daily Affirmations When Quitting Your Job
Every step we have reviewed is now meant to be your regular affirmation for confidence throughout the process of your job change. So don’t miss a day and remember to say:
I trust my gut
I know what to do
I am confident that now IS the right time
Failure is not my destiny
I believe that I can quit my job and achieve a better life
You will gain greater momentum in following your intuition if you bring your energy to the right state as often as possible. Restate these affirmations each morning, with real meaning, intention, and focus, and allow your inspiration for change to flow.
2. Prepare For the Journey You Actually Want to Take
The reason you are taking the path to quit your job is to bring yourself into balance. Therefore, you want to ensure that you are prioritizing your balance throughout the process.
As with any journey, make a checklist, pack what you need, and leave nothing behind.
Developing a solid plan can help place a solid foundation of trust in your decision making your journey feel like one you are excited to take.
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