Life's Balance

Is your life feeling out of balance?

No matter what we use as criteria when it comes to experiencing balance in our lives, we have certain needs that need to be filled throughout our lives—and the more balanced our fulfillment of these needs, the smoother our boat will sail.

IIN calls it primary foods

Maslow called it a hierarchy of needs

Anthony Robbins called it a wheel

I call it a pie.  

Whatever we call it, it all comes down to balance. If our life is not in balance then we are in trouble.

Self actualization (morality, creativity, problem solving
learning, lack of prejudice and acceptance of facts
Esteem (self esteem, confidence, respect) 
Love and belonging (friendship, family and intimacy) 
Safety (security of body, health, family, property, employment, resources and morality) 
Physiological (breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion).  

Everyone can rank these in a different order of importance. At the same time, we may each rank them differently at different times in our lives. What is certain: if one of the above is lacking and another is over emphasized, then we are out of balance.

Anthony Robbins does an exercise with a wheel representing career, physical, spiritual and financial. We have to rank each by "how it is going." Visually we are able to see, for example, that we are doing great financially and physically, but perhaps not spiritually or career-wise. If we are out of balance, our wheel will not roll.

The Institute for Integrative Nutrition calls it "primary foods." Outside our triangle of nutrition is a circle that consists of relationship, spirituality, career and physical activity.

The truth is, we can fix what we eat.  We can eat more greens and get rid of processed foods, but if we don't take care of the other areas of our life, we will still not experience balanced health and happiness.

To help you see the topics more clearly, take a look at the following basic needs and ways of fulfillment.

Self actualization (morality, creativity, problem solving, learning, lack of prejudice and acceptance of facts)

• Prayer, Thoughtfulness, Meditation
• Hobby
• Study
• Spirituality
• Contribution

Esteem (self esteem, confidence, respect)

• Gratitude
• Feelings

Love and belonging (friendship, family and intimacy)

• Relationship building
• Caregiving
• Forgiveness
• Intimacy

Safety (security of body, health, family, property, employment, resources and morality)

• Environmental safety
• Health & well being
• Job Security
• Career growth
• Financial empowerment
• Environmental preservation
• Ethics and morality

Physiological (breathing, environmental, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion)

• Clean air, meditation, breathing exercise
• Environmental impact on health and well being through design (ex. bringing nature into the home, healthy light, smart space)
• Bringing it all together - Home and Health
• Nutrition 
• Superfoods
• Acai
  Algae
  Aloe Vera
  Bee Products
  Cacao
  Camu Camu Berry
  Chlorella
  Coconut
  Goji Berries 
  Hempseed
  Incan Berries
  Kelp
  Maca
  Marine Phytoplankton
  Noni
  Yacon
• Raw Nutrition
• An explanation of raw nutrition
• Juicing vs Blending
• Nuts and Seeds
• Sprouts
• Grasses
• Seaweed
• Roots
• Mushrooms
• Recipes
• Water, amount and clean
• Intimacy as a physical need
• Amount and quality of sleep
• Digestion
• Bodily function, sight, hearing, pain
• Cleansing
• Illness and healing

We will be adding to this and focusing on each topic as total wellness.  Look forward to future blogs on each line item and broken down even further for more tips on how to improve the quality of our lives.  If anyone has any categories they would add to each need, please comment below.

~Cathy