How To Live A Balanced Life: 5 Pillars of Life

How do you balance everything in your life? Parenting, being a spouse, a parent, a worker, a friend, and so on? Have you adopted a system that keeps you grounded, and on track? If so, can you share in the comments and also subscribe please? My system has 5 pillars that I call, The Five Pillars of a Balanced Life. These pillars are Spirituality, Health and Wellness, Relationships, Home management, and Finances and Wealth. I wanted to cover the major areas of my life so that I can live a life of being intentional, and purposeful. In my opinion I do believe that the most important pillar is spirituality and everything else is branches off from that. However, I do understand that not all people are spiritual so, you can replace this pillar with a set of values, or whatever thing or source that you draw from. How do you balance your life? What tools do you use that help you manage your life? Is having balance important to you?

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

-Matthew 6:33

Story Time

In order for me to survive when I had to start over after becoming a widow, I needed a system that helped me keep my life balanced as much as possible. Looking back, there was a time in 2019 where I realized that I was not satisfied in my life. I wanted to be the best mom, wife, employer, and business owner that I could be. When I took a closer look, I realized that I was struggling to maintain a balance in all areas of my life. So, I went on a journey. First, I had to take accountability of what was working and what was not working. I was not satisfied and I want to do and be more. My deepest desire from the heart of hearts, deep down within me was to be an amazing wife and mother. I had goals and aspirations also that were important to me, so I wanted to somehow achieve them too. Let’s face it, we all have 24 hours in a day. So, how does one leverage the time he/she has, and still achieve the life balance that we all need?

Spirituality/Value System

Having a spiritual life is important. Something bigger, higher, and more powerful than us, is a great source to draw from when our strength fail. A value system that governs your way of life is crucial to make sure that you are not swayed one way or another, and stay grounded. For me, I believe in The Creator, The Most High Sonini Nanini ( The I AM THAT I AM), The God of Abram, Isaka, and Akobe. I believe that The Bible contains some truth about Him (something were altered) and I believe that He has a People chosen by Him. Having a higher power helps us in times when our strength fails. It is the last line of defense in helping us do almost anything. My question to you is, what do you rely on when all fails? Do you believe in The Most High? Or do you believe in other deities?

“The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the better you hear what is sounding outside of you.”
– Dag Hammarskjold

Health and Wellness

Have you heard that saying, “Health is wealth”? I truly do believe that without health, nothing else in the 3D realm matters. You can have all the money, all the influence, but at the end of the day, if your health is not good, nothing matters. Our health and wellness is so important for us to be able to successfully complete tasks at hand, and also feel good about living. Medical, physical, mental, and emotional health is one of the most important currencies that we have. Wellness, has a lot do with the state of being. How well, are you feeling and looking today? Wellness, means that we are pouring in our cups regularly to be the best versions of ourselves, however that looks like to you. It is important to remember that you cannot pour from an empty cup. I can tell you that taking time to take care of my health and wellness, has gotten me through the hardest times of my life. Learn to ground and re-center yourself to have a clear view and perspectives of real life issues.

“The first wealth is health.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Relationships

Relationships are one of the important part of our lives. There are many types of relationships. You can be in a parent to child, employer to employer, friend to friend, and or even romantic relationships. We also have business relationships. Colleagues, acquaintances, associates, vendors, and investors. Relationships require a commitment and dedication. Fostering important relationships in our lives, require intentionality and planning. Letting people know that you value them, will go a long way in strengthening important relationships. When was the last time you expressed gratitude towards people in your life? What was the last time, someone appreciated you and meant it? How do you generally feel, when someone recognizes your efforts? Efforts are more than words, true appreciation is also shown with actions, consistency, and commitment.

“When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.”
― Donald Miller

Home Management

Just like our external bodies are usually a representation of what we feel on the inside of us, so does your home. A house is made a home with the people who live in it, how they decorate it, and maintain it. Let’s face it, maintaining an orderly, clean, organized home is not an easy undertaking, especially if you have children, and pets. Along side the list of our responsibilities, home-management is one that seems to be a full time job at times. Outside the usual cleaning, organizing, we also have to plan and cook meals, pay bills, and organize important paperwork, do maintenance and repairs, oh and obey HOA rules too. Coordinating all home related activities, can easily feel overwhelming, especially when collaboration is needed from other members of the household, such as children. Do you find home management to be challenging to you? How do you keep your home neat and tidy? What are some of daily practices that have helped you maintain your home, while staying sane?

“Life truly begins when you put your house in order.”

– Marie Kondo

Finances and Wealth

I was telling my children the other day, that is one thing to live to work or work to live. We do need finances to manage our lives in general, but we have to get to a place where money is working for us. As I learned more about money, I started to see it as a tool, not an idol. I understand that each one of us has a financial blueprint, and it is vital to know what our relationship is. Are you a spender, a saver, or a hoarder/poor mindset? Our financial blueprint has a lot to do with how our parents managed their money and conditions in which we grew up in. Healing childhood trauma should also address the mindset we have in regards to money. Our finances have to do with the financial obligations that we have currently. Building wealth still address finances, but wealth takes a closer look at financial independence, where we meet both short and long term financial goals. Financial independence frees our time, so we can do what we want, when we want without worrying too much about money. A place where we even make money in our sleep.

Don’t work for the money, let the money work for you.

-Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Practical Advice on Achieving a Life Balance

After reading this article, what to do now? Take a notepad, and list the 5 pillars one on each page. Starting with Spirituality, start writing whatever that comes to you. It doesn’t matter if it is the goals you have or an idea, or even an observation. Just write! Do this brainstorming exercise for each pillar. After you have written as much as you can. Go through each pillar and categorize what you wrote. Maybe you see that there is some research you want to do? Maybe there is a goal, or an improvement you want to make in that are….and so on. After categorizing, make a decision on how you are going to go about the new goals, and new information you want to gather. Evaluate your current life, and use what you already have on hand. Remember, your financial goals have to align with your goals in other pillars. The key word here is “balance”. Please subscribe to learn more about how I went from the list of goals to realizing those goals in real life. Thank you for reading, and now go out there and thrive!!