Hello there and welcome to my 98^th blog,

As you all know my blogs come from my heart. They are true and authentic and usually very cathartic for me. On the way, I really hope that something resonates with you sometimes when reading them.

The  word balance does to me a little of what the word moderation used to do (it is so much better now)… it makes me mad, very irritated and a little bit crazy.

Why might you ask?

Well in my opinion, and this one is not a  humble one, actually a very strong one, it is well nigh impossible for me to achieve this in my life. However, in spite of my almost abhorrence of this word, since embarking on my health and wellness journey four years ago, I am constantly and consistently (another of “my” words) seeking out, reading, and studying articles with reams and tomes of endless advice on how I can achieve better balance in my life. I absorb, inwardly digest, assimilate and then plan to strive for the ultimate balance. For a few magnificent days, I am just rocking the balance, but, then, alas, within a short while, a very short while, it has all gone completely and utterly pear, the scales have fallen to the ground, I have fallen off the wagon, and I am back to square one.

Let me explain further. For the purposes of this blog, I am going to discuss my personal balance story. Please bear with me.

 

1. Family

So, I do believe I fulfil my familial responsibilities in a balanced way, mostly. Fortunately, these are not too arduous when it comes to my boys as they are all pretty much self-sufficient and very independent, and My Favourite is the least needy person that I know. Happy days. However, throwing the family net a little further out, we start encountering some difficulties. My guilt dictates that I need to give more to  one member of the fold for a number of reasons. This then backfires when I start taking on said person’s difficulties, which makes me bleak, and affects my wellness and bang goes the whole balance story. Another issue arises when the grown-up lads are out and about til the early hours of the morning, and I start with a message, then another, then another. This leads me to my Find My iPhone app to establish where said child AKA adult is. Sleep then eludes me until I am certain all is okay. Poof, up in smoke go the healthy balanced boundaries, and the trying to, not only untie those apron strings, but remove the apron completely.

2. Social

Covid was a double-edged sword for me in this department. We did not go out. I was establishing my new practice, my website, my supplements business, and my nutrition coaching practice. So much work and very little social, except with the family, which was great, but again this was not balanced. All work and no play almost made Hayles a dull lass. Now that we are out and about, I am giving it horns and often, so the scales have now tipped in the opposite direction.  This leads to tiredness, a little grumpiness and may lead to ill health. Boy oh boy!

3. Fun

Again, I do not struggle to find fun, in most things that I do. This is good and positive until a little too much fun, loads of laughter and awesome times, accompanied by a few too many bubbles, result in my feeling a lot less than strong and healthy on a few mornings over some weekends. No balance there, I am afraid. On the upside of fun, when I treat my patients, I believe that I do balance fun with achieving my treatment goals.

4. Work

From spending about 4-5 hours a week working pre-Covid, I now spend about 30 hours plus. However, this is not just the treating of my patients, but it is the data capturing, the patient’s notes, communication with relatives, mails, calls to medical aids and, lastly, the dreaded reports. Now that probably does not sound like a great deal of time in the scheme of things, but added to this, are my nutrition clients, the preparation for my blogs, the admin from my supplements business and more recently the aligning with a social media company to help get my brand out there.  It is a lot of time, it is tiring and is definitely not balanced, in fact it is the antithesis of balance.

5. Exercise

This one does literally not bear talking about, but being me, I will chat about it. No sooner have I got into the swing of exercise after my gazillionth injury, than I hurt myself again and I am again off exercise for weeks on end. This happens with regularity. I also never rehab properly and therefore this narrative is never in balance. I am a slow learner, but feel optimistic that this time I will see my rehabilitation through until everything is symmetrical, aligned and my musculoskeletal system is strong again. i really do not have a choice in this matter. Holding thumbs.

6. Leisure

I actually believe that there may be a hint of balance with this one, particularly of late. Wow. Hayles! Yippee! I still aim for a couple of days a week over lunchtime getting my much-needed vitamin D, I have started reading books for fun recently, and every now and again I put my feet up for a while.  The only thing I need to say here, is that my most recent injury involving a fall, not a UDI (Unidentified Dancing/Drinking Injury), necessitated a bit of bed rest. So, this has helped me get into more of a routine of self-care and some leisure balance. Perhaps, an upside to my injury.

7. Diet

A little bit of a roller coaster on at times, I am afraid to have to admit, but on the whole actually fairly well balanced for the most part, if you exclude my penchant for bubbles. I take awesome supplements to fill in the gaps, which I feel is very necessary. Perhaps the more than half a block of choc after dinner regularly of late, or the 3 slices of death-by-chocolate cake over the weekend, thanks to my patient’s daughter, may not be in keeping with the balance fable. However, it would be offensive not to indulge in these delights, would it not?

8. Stress

We all know that stress is a normal part of our lives. It’s the way in which I respond to stress that is often not balanced, in fact to the contrary, singularly unbalanced. It does depend on what else is going on in my life and how I am feeling at the time. On a positive note, I do not lose it as often as I used to, so perhaps a little more balance has been established. I also have been using quite a lot of breathwork to manage this more effectively. Go Hayles!

9. Mind

I do challenge myself intellectually by studying and researching, but again, perhaps too much. I have also realized that I may use it as a crutch when things are not going swimmingly. However, there can be worse crutches to have, in the greater scheme of things. Sometimes, I do not rest my mind enough as I also constantly overthink most things, in a very unbalanced fashion. Often, I let my saboteurs take over my mind, and this creates a huge imbalance. When I recruit my Sage,  things seem to get better. Working on this one. Somehow my mission of kindness seems to help create balance.

10. Friendships

This is a difficult one to make total sense of. I really love my friends and am really good about keeping in contact with them … that is, until I am not. When I am going through difficult times, I just want to climb into my shell and remain there. I do not want to talk about the stuff, and I often do not want to see people. At these times, the scales do rather a lot of tipping. I also often prefer sending messages rather than chatting, and although this will suffice some of the time, it is often better and necessary to talk. Otherwise words can get misconstrued, and it can all go awry. not a good thing.

11. Sleep

I do believe this may be a balanced area for me. I strive for consistent optimal sleep and on the whole I do achieve this. The only negative are the increasing late weekend nights which do wreak havoc with this rhythm. Oh dear!

12. Spirituality

I am a spiritual person but sometimes I do become more spiritual when the going gets tough. Having recognised this, I now have been trying to give thanks and keep spiritual through the good times and the not so fab.

Thank so much for reading this.

What is just so very positive is the fact that I acknowledge and take on board the struggle that I have with  balance in some aspects of my life. Mostly, I know how improve on them and I will continue to strive towards aiming for this.

Ironically I give talks at retirement homes on the importance of balance in order to prevent falls. A few weeks ago just before I did my  presentation, I fell at the very retirement home at which I was going to present my lecture. I  missed a step whilst walking up some stairs. This resulted in my most recent, very painful, and rather debilitating injury, alluded to above. So much for all the balance exercises I have been advocating on my social media platforms, too!! It has been said that others should “Do as I say, not as I do”. That’s my story and I am sticking to it. I did mention the fall to a number of the folk, and I think they found it quite amusing! Funny that.

Having let this all out and chatted to you about this, I am feeling so very much better. In fact, I might even be able to start using the word a little more. Would that not be a thing?

Thank you so much for listening to me.I would love to hear how balanced your life is. Here’s to living a beautifully imperfect life, striving for as much balance as we can, but accepting the out of balance as part of our awesome lives.