Much of the content of this blog has to do with my struggle to keep balance--making time to take care of myself physically and emotionally, making enough time to enjoy and raise my girls, committing enough at work (but not too much), making sure I nurture my marriage, and so on. My line of thinking lately has been that there is no such thing as "balance" when you're a working mom, where all of the balls are actually in the air at once. It's more like plate spinning, where you're running around between the poles, spinning plates as they are just about to drop, ignoring some when they get going on their own, dropping others when you don't reach them in time.
I'm wondering if this is the right metaphor, though. It does, after all, keep you running, and the focus is on plates falling, which is acting from a place of fear. It puts one on the defensive.
I'm wondering instead about Wayne Dyer's idea in Being in Balance. He argues there that it is not about changing daily practices that will bring us in balance, but rather "about realigning yourself in all of your thoughts so as to create a balance between what you desire and how you conduct your life on a daily basis."
This focus on thoughts (you are what you think) is one of the central tenets of New Thought (unchurch), so I'm familiar with the idea. But I'm exhilarated and terrified by the notion that I have so much power in my own life. What if I were to set an intention that is totally out of step with the safe routines (plate spinnings) I've established so far? What if I welcomed changes into my life, spaces that allowed me to fulfill those intentions? How destabilizing. A new paradigm, maybe.
My friend Marshall is doing this now. She has left behind her safe routines for a while, setting her intention toward living a full, authentic life, whatever that ends up meaning for her. I think she's exhilarated and terrified, too, if her writing about that experience is any indication.
Could I do that? Not up and leave everything behind, of course, but set a grand intention for living the life I actually want and desire?
Yes. I think I can. The hard part will be to figure out what that intention is. So, my interim-intention (
) will be to welcome some clarity about what kind of life I want to be living. I intend to find out what my intentions are. I make space for those messages.
Hooo. Scary.
I'm wondering if this is the right metaphor, though. It does, after all, keep you running, and the focus is on plates falling, which is acting from a place of fear. It puts one on the defensive.
I'm wondering instead about Wayne Dyer's idea in Being in Balance. He argues there that it is not about changing daily practices that will bring us in balance, but rather "about realigning yourself in all of your thoughts so as to create a balance between what you desire and how you conduct your life on a daily basis."
This focus on thoughts (you are what you think) is one of the central tenets of New Thought (unchurch), so I'm familiar with the idea. But I'm exhilarated and terrified by the notion that I have so much power in my own life. What if I were to set an intention that is totally out of step with the safe routines (plate spinnings) I've established so far? What if I welcomed changes into my life, spaces that allowed me to fulfill those intentions? How destabilizing. A new paradigm, maybe.
My friend Marshall is doing this now. She has left behind her safe routines for a while, setting her intention toward living a full, authentic life, whatever that ends up meaning for her. I think she's exhilarated and terrified, too, if her writing about that experience is any indication.
Could I do that? Not up and leave everything behind, of course, but set a grand intention for living the life I actually want and desire?
Yes. I think I can. The hard part will be to figure out what that intention is. So, my interim-intention (
) will be to welcome some clarity about what kind of life I want to be living. I intend to find out what my intentions are. I make space for those messages. Hooo. Scary.
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