No Limits | The Freedom Coach
Balance is Baloney
Written by Steven Griggs |thefreedomcoach.com
"Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery."
Wayne Dyer
Wayne Dyer
What is living “in balance”? How many times have you read or been told that you need to live “in balance”? If you’ve tried living “ in balance” has it worked for you?
Personally I think that the only time you need to worry about balance is if you are dancing with hippos… then balance becomes important!
I don’t really think that we humans are supposed to live in balance. Really… what does it mean?
It sounds good and appropriate but is it real? Now I’m sure there are people out there who will say they are living a balanced life, but how would we really know? Is there a template or rule book for living “in balance”?
Excess is the rule.
I think rather than live “in balance” we humans actually tend to live “in excess”. I don’t mean we are all maniacs running around eating, drinking and living hugely excessive lives but on some levels maybe we are….
Aren’t there times when you eat too much? Or drink (anything) too much? Or stay up too late? Or drive too fast? Or……? The list of potential excesses goes on and on.
One example: Look at the quantities of food we have in America and the amount of obese people. This is one good example of excess. You might say yes and that’s the problem, we need to live in balance and eat less….. but is it realistic to expect us to all cut back and live on less food if it’s so easily available? Bring in the entire population of any third world country and in time they would have the same obesity problems that we have.
My point here is that we aren’t constructed to be “in balance” or to live within someone else’s opinion or sensibilities about what is “normal” and acceptable. We tend to be excessive sometimes.
I believe that we all live within what I call our “Comfort Band”. This is a band or range of comfort that we each operate in. It is much like a thermostat setting, you have a high and a low and we all operate within the range of this preset Comfort Band.
Sometimes you will range down towards the lower setting and sometimes bump up against the higher setting, but you will always stay within the range. Not higher, not lower.
For some of us the band settings are lower and for some they are higher. That’s why some people have more money than others. Their Comfort Bands allow for greater financial success, while some of us don’t feel comfortable being that successful. It’s not based on intelligence, luck, education, connections or anything else for that matter. It is all based on the under programing (limiting beliefs) that we have taken on that sets the limits of our “Comfort Band”.
You can look at all areas of your life and get a picture of your settings. I’ll talk more about how we get our settings and how to change them in another article.
Your Dream Car
For example, look at the type of car you drive. (I’m not saying you are your car… this is just a good example). You probably aren't driving your dream car (if you are, good on you) but you are more than likely driving a car that you feel is appropriate or that you are “comfortable” in. Not too special, not too flashy… not too extreme. Or are you driving your dream car and is it "not too special", "not too flashy" and "not too extreme"….?
Now look at your feelings about your car as you read this. If you pay attention to yourself you may notice that you might be justifying the car you drive by noting its cost, sensibility, economy, etc. If so, you are observing yourself operating in your “Comfort Band”.
You can apply this insight to every area of your life.
This is also how we approach all those things we tend to do too much of. We may drift into overeating but when we get to that extreme setting, see the weight getting too high, we will tone it down and diet or cut back until we feel comfortable again.
If you are doing too much of anything, you will know when it becomes uncomfortable and slow it down a bit until you feel comfortable again. We do this in all areas of our lives: wash, rinse, repeat.
Resetting your Thermostat
There may be times when you drift into a level lower than your current setting. This can occur when you start buying into your current circumstances and reset your thermostat by taking on more limiting beliefs. Being jobless for a long time may have you begin to take on untrue beliefs, such as you are not good enough or smart enough, or you are too old and therefore unemployable. If you allow this type of thinking to contaminate your mind it may reprogram your settings and you could see your situation become more challenged.
So next time someone talks about being in balance, you can relax and know you are already in balance- with yourself.
The next step will be to decide what you want to change and then you can begin to reprogram your Comfort Band. More on that later.
