- Life As a House
- Wherever You Go, There You Are
- The Urgency Factor
- Getting Back in Balance
Getting Back in Balance
A house is never going to be divided into 8 or 10 perfectly even rooms. Think about your dream home, whether that's where you reside right now or not. Your dream home may have a "great room," that supersized living area. It may have smaller rooms, like a cozy den, or a smaller guest bedroom. The master bedroom may be large enough to include a seating area. In any case, you won't find a house with every room the same size.
Ideally, however, the house, when looked at as a whole, will be pleasing. To borrow from the ancient art of feng shui, it will have balance and serenity. It will be a place worth coming home to at night. It won't be so out of balance that it topples on the foundation. The foundation will be firm, strong, and architecturally sound. If you're like most of us, your dream house, this metaphor we're using for life, doesn't look that way now. And even if you take all the suggestions in this book, you have to realize that at times life will simply happen. In other words, your life may come out of balance at tax time, or maybe you will have a parent who falls ill, or you may have a health scare. For Erica, a recent surgery meant the entire house was consumed with health. For Kathy, dealing with an aging parent meant there was little time for writing. It's okay to find yourself out of balance at times. What's not okay is watching a year go by without making the kind of significant life changes that will bring you a greater sense of balance. Everything can't be urgent all of the time.
Examining the problem is the first step toward remodeling your life and your house. Now that you have taken a hard look at whether or not your life is in balance, it's time to move on to each of the areas and overhaul and then fine-tune your life so that your house looks more like this: