Life Balance

When I first turned 25 I was excited. I was where I wanted to be.  I had, or was about to have, my bachelors degree in hand, was about to get married, and was lining up paperwork for Graduate school. 

As the big 25 has continued on my bachelors degree was hanging on the wall, I was married to the man I adore, and will be starting Concordia in about a week.

Still, I can't help but think about life and life balance. Is that what the big milestone birthdays do to a person? You think about the what am I doing in parts of life that isn't satisfying? So I had read, doesn't that always get people in trouble, about the areas of life balance and decided to see how they measure up.

The key to living your life to the fullest is balance. How can you live your life to the fullest if one or more areas of your life suffer? For example, maybe you are successful in your career. But will it matter if your family life is not happy? Or maybe you are a very knowledgeable person. But will it matter if your body is sick?
To live your life to the fullest, I believe there are five areas of life you need to develop in balance. Those five areas are spirituality, mind, body, relationship, and work. Here are the details:

1. SpiritualityThis area deals with your conscience, values, and principles: Already a trick question because this long definition ultimately deals with Religion of which I have none. As to the rest, however, I have plenty and plenty of opinions on them. I feel like my values and principles are incredibly important to me and have turned me into the person I am today.
2. Mind This area deals with your desire to learn: Of this I have a lot! I love to ask questions and learn new things. 
3. Body This one is kind of obvious and this one I don't feel like I have a good balance.  While I am eating better over the last few weeks I have slipped back into some bad eating habits lately.  I don't exercise at all and am often way too exhausted to do anything after work.  I am not happy with my body image at all and no excuses I've let the other areas of my live take over.
4. Relationship This area deals with your relationships with your family, friends, and colleagues: This is where I feel pretty solid.  I really love my husband, family, and friends. I however simply put up with my work colleagues.  They're younger and in a different stage of life than I am. I don't hate them, well not all of them as there are some I definitely cannot stand, nor do I with them 'ill-will'.  I am simply in a different phase of my life. 
5. Work This area deals with your career and achievements. This area of my life is 50/50.  I have had some highs in this part of my life, getting my BA on my way to my graduate degree for example.  And I've had a lot of lows. Right now is a low.  I am still stuck in a retail job with ugly uniforms, low pay, and zero respect. I can do so much better than this. It won't be long now though. I have something else on the horizon and I'm hoping that will shift the balance.
   
   
   It is interesting to see it written out.  Maybe this should become a birthday tradition. :).