There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.

-Alain de Botton

How is balance related to health?

We know it is important to have balance between different parts of our lives, including work, family, free time, and so on. There are many ways to define balance.¹ Some people look at it in terms of how they fit within their community, and others with how they are doing as an individual person. Each of us must define what balance means. For some people it is a state of mind, or a place of less stress. For others, it involves how much time they spend on different activities. Many people simply say they know when they are or are not balanced. When it comes to Whole Health, balance might be feeling good about how you are doing with all the different parts of the Circle of Health. 

However, they define it, people will usually say that balance is an important part of being healthy. Studies confirm this.² For example, a study of 25,000 people in 27 countries in Europe looked at how healthy people were based on how they rated the balance between their work lives and their personal lives. People with poor balance had twice the odds of being in poor health.³

What makes for a healthy balance in my life?

There is no simple way to answer that question, because everyone is different when it comes to defining balance. You might feel like you must devote a lot of time to work, or you may only feel truly happy when you are with loved ones. Some people are happiest when they are serving others, some when they are able to focus on a skill or talent, and others when they are in nature. Most people care about all of these things, and the trick is to figure out how to give enough time to each one, based on your values. Setting goals for your health can help you to feel more balanced.

Part of working toward Whole Health in your life is to pause and really ask what matters to you. How would you answer the following questions?

• What matters the most to me?
• What is my mission in life? 
• What are my dreams and goals? 
• What is my calling?  My life purpose?