One Word January 2024

I am again participating in Lisa Notes’ One Word Challenge.
This year my word is “Balance”.
This month Lisa Notes has us doing the assignment of “Take a Closer Look at Your One Word”. There are several exercises that are suggested.

“Where is my word?”
Sometimes I will see my word in passages of a book. Coincidentally it is the title of a recently acquired book (acquired before I decided on my word) called “Being in Balance” by Dr. Wayne Dyer, which I will be sure to read in the course of the year.

“What does my word look like?”
I collaged my word and posted it last month.

“Why this word?”
I decided to work through portions of the worksheet that Lisa Notes gave us.
Dictionary Definition
There are a lot of different definitions of balance (noun and verb) in the dictionary, but I will choose the most relevant for my purposes.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary:
-equipoise between contrasting, opposing, or interacting elements
-mental and emotional steadiness
-to bring into harmony or proportion
My Definition
Balance in areas of my life: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, as well as balance in my work and play parts of life. Relationship balance: me time, couple time, family time, friend time.
Synonyms
The three choices that resonate with me the most:
-equity, harmony, stability
Opposites
Some suggestions are:
-imbalance, inequality, agitation, disproportion, overbalance, underbalance
Goals
-become more physically active
-be more aware of my mental and emotional needs
-spend more time on spiritual matters
-write every day
-spend more time with friends and community
Activities
-I am gradually increasing my physical activities. A couple of weeks ago I added swimming and weightlifting to my exercise regime. I already walk daily.
-In my book club, we are reading “The Joy Diet” by Martha Beck, and the first part of the “diet” is “do nothing” aka meditation. I have never been successful in meditation, but Beck has an interesting technique of not only watching your thoughts but also labelling the emotions associated with them, e.g., fear, worry, anger. I have been finding this technique to be helpful to regulate my emotions.
-Nature is my typical go to in order to feel awe, but it was put to the side last year. This year I am already making more conscious efforts to engage in nature activities, even if it is as small as watching the birds through my window for a few minutes. It all adds up.
-This year Gretchen Rubin is doing #Write24in24. You can write either 2-4 minutes or 24 minutes. Every morning now the first thing I do (instead of Squardle or Connections—they come later) is write at least 2-4 minutes. I am using the exercises in “A Writer’s Book of Days” by Judy Reeves, a book that I have been through once but it was years ago, so everything is fresh. This is on top of the writing exercises I do in my creative writing course. It ensures that I will have something on the page every day.
-Pre pandemic I had a small group of friends, but post pandemic my contact with most of them has decreased. I think the pandemic really put a strain on relationships, and I am trying to strengthen my ties, as well as find new ones. Yesterday I went to a community chilli lunch, which included some line dancing fun. What a blast! Next week I have signed up for a watercolour workshop. These are all activities I would have engaged in pre pandemic but during the pandemic it was impossible to engage in most of them, so I am “out of practice”. I need to get back into it.
Resources
-I will continue to read about balance. I do have to be realistic, and this article states that it is impossible to achieve balance (and that maybe I don’t want to—something more to think about). The best takeaway for me from the article is that balance is something that is always being adjusted. If achieving balance becomes stressful, then it’s counterproductive, so I will keep that in mind.

What surprised me is how many definitions there are of balance. I am sure I will expand my views as the year goes on.
How about you? How are you doing with your word?

Shoe’s Seeds and Stories
@Copyright 2024 Linda Schueler