Have you ever felt guilty about missing out on work or spending too much with work? Do you feel like you are caught between different worlds, constantly struggling to find balance, that you feel like you need to do all of these things when it comes to work and family life and health and this, that, and the other thing, but there’s no way you can actually keep it all balanced?
If this is resonating with you, you’ll want to listed to this week’s episode where I am shifting your perspective from looking for achieving that balance, and instead, moving more towards harmony, and how that can feel a lot better on the nervous system and relieve some of that undo pressure you put on yourself.
Listen to the Episode
Why Finding Balance Is Unattainable
- Balance
- Perfectionism
- Harmony
- Looking at a wider picture
- Being in alignment
- Doing enough of the good stuff
Show Notes
Unapologetic Practices Revamp Waitlist: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/21057/122005522832426619/share
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Complimentary Catalyst Call: https://tidycal.com/janninemackinnon/catalyst-call
Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jannine.mackinnon/
Transcript
Have you ever felt guilty about missing out on work or spending too much with work? Do you feel like you are caught between different worlds, constantly struggling to find balance, that you feel like you need to do all of these things when it comes to work and family life and health and this, that, and the other thing, but there’s no way you can actually keep it all balanced?
This is resonating with you. This is what we are digging into in today’s episode where I am shifting your perspective from looking for achieving that balance. instead, really moving more towards harmony and how that can feel a lot better on the nervous system and to just relieve some of that pressure, that undo pressure that you put on yourself.
So when it comes to balance, I’m sure you have heard. Many different things around the topic, like work life balance, family balance, trying to keep everything balanced. And for me, what that evokes is really thinking of these scales, where we have two things on each end, and they need to perfectly weigh the exact same amount to have that balance.
Or perhaps it’s thinking about a gymnast balancing down a balance beam. And again, there’s that evenness, that perfection that comes with that idea of balance as they’re walking down or doing their different flips on the balance beam, right? And so
I feel like balance really comes with this idea of perfectionism tied to it.
And it causes us to strive and strive for this perfect balance when in actuality Like, life, nature, is not perfectly balanced. There is no perfection, there is no having exactly the right amount of something or of multiple things to feel balanced, to feel fulfilled, to feel like you were doing things right.
Like, this idea of that balance is just chasing this perfectionism that. Just doesn’t exist. And so it keeps us caught up in this hamster wheel of trying and trying and beating ourselves up for not doing the thing or feeling like we should be doing something more or better than we are.
And so right here, right now, I would like to just give you permission. To say, fuck the balance. Balance is not the goal. Just relieve that pressure from yourself for a moment. Really take a moment to breathe and feel that acceptance. That balance is not the thing. That it is something that’s being sold to us, but truly that is not what our goal can be.
When it comes to living intentionally, living a truly fulfilling life as a Multifaceted woman who yes has your family and that’s so important to you and the time you spend with your loved ones while also having that career or business pursuit, something that you love doing that brings you passion and purpose.
As well as all of the different myriad of things with friendships, with hobbies, with different community things, with being out in nature, with your spirituality. There’s all of these different facets. And so how we can shift our perspective around this is to actually use the word harmony. So when I think of harmony.
I think of a song of many different notes or many different instruments all coming together for a song or a piece of music in harmony. And it’s not that they are all equal, it’s that they all play a role, they’re all different, they all feed together, and through the cooperation of all of these things together is where you get that beautiful output.
that beautiful song or that feeling of fulfillment. And so the way we can really shift our thinking around this is again, using that pressure.
We don’t need to have things perfectly balanced where we are 50, 50 work and family. Okay. Cutting up that pie even more when it comes to our health or extended family or friendships, all of these things.
We can really think of that harmony, knowing. That life is going to fluctuate and flow and shift and that these different levels or these different pieces of our life rather will require different things from us at different times. And to find harmony in a certain season of life will perhaps mean that maybe family really needs to be the focus for a little while and certain pieces of work are, not as much of that priority.
And then health is in another piece or aging parents is in another. And so we find harmony. Within making these things work together by taking things off our plate where we can and prioritizing where we need to in the moment and knowing that that shifts. from day to day, week to week, month to month, season to season.
And there is no perfect harmony that’s going to look the same.
And to really give ourselves permission and grace around that and understanding that sometimes we can put a lot of pressure on ourselves when it comes to finding this balance or this harmony within a particular day. But I truly feel like a day.
is such a narrow focus and it can be a good focus in some ways and having particular goals that you want to be your priority for the day. But in terms of finding that harmony, I think it really takes us to zoom out a little bit more widely and look at whether it’s a week or even a month and see how we have found harmony with the different facets of our life.
over that time. And so again, when we zoom out and look at that, it shows us it’s okay to prioritize say work or business. Maybe you have a big launch coming up or a big project at work that requires a lot of time and focus and you know you just aren’t going to be as present with your family in those moments.
And so you also put things in place. Do you have other people around for your family or no once your work focus has shifted, you can shift your priority to your family. You know when things are busy that your health, your mental and physical health needs to be upkept at a certain level. So you can really maintain everything that you’re going through while also knowing perhaps it’s not going to be at this really high level because Work or business really requires that prioritization of your time in the moment.
And then, as time goes on, that project comes to a close, that launch comes to a close. You’re able to shift priorities. Really pour into your self care, into your health, into your family. And have business or work kind of slip more to the side. Taking as much things off of your plate as you can, while prioritizing those other pieces.
And then when you look back over those few weeks or that month is when you’re really able to see that harmony come together, , you can see where you really are moving forward, making progress with the various goals for the different areas of your life, and you’re finding harmony overall.
And when you really see that, You can let go of some of that guilt that might come from not being present enough in one area or the other. Because you also trust yourself in knowing that you’re able to find that harmony and that greater link. And another piece that I think really adds into this to feel that harmonization within your life, within these different things, is to really come from a place of alignment.
When you are thinking about your priorities, where your focus and your attention really goes, how in alignment does it feel? When you are thinking of Different things you can take off your plate. Different things that need to be stripped away so you can focus on what that priority is. Taking a step back and really looking into, oh, what doesn’t feel in alignment?
What can I shift or change or peel away so I have more space to focus on what really matters to me? And when you come from that place of alignment, I find that harmony tends to more easily flow in and out. It’s when we are moving out of alignment and putting more pressure on ourselves in different areas than really feel good for us.
That we start to carry a bigger stress load, where we start to push ourselves more into those states of burnout and overwhelm and all of these different things.
Because I really do feel that it doesn’t come down to, like, doing too much. What really matters is that we are doing enough of the good stuff.
So we can keep ourselves very busy on things that don’t feel in alignment and we are letting other things really fall to the side. Or perhaps we are really focusing on something that feels in alignment. But we’re not doing enough of the good stuff that helps give us that harmonization, that more well rounded feeling of fulfillment outside of that one piece, that one priority.
So again, when we are really zooming out, we need to be looking at doing enough of the good stuff, the stuff that truly fills our cups. That lights us up inside that brings us that passion, that sense of purpose, that feeling of love and community. And so if you are someone that likes being busy, it’s okay to be busy, have lots of different things on your plate if that is how you thrive and you’re able to get through that maintaining your health and just different levels of joy when you are doing more of the good stuff.
In addition. To these other priorities that are taking your focus. And so that kind of goes back to what I touched on is when you are in a state of really needing to buckle down, focus on that launch, or maybe it’s even aging parents and really being that supportive caretaker role in your family in one way or another.
You know that you need to really prioritize your health during that time to carry you on, so that’s really doing enough of that good stuff. You know that when you are being a big support for others, you need that support yourself. That you have that support. Your partner or a great friend or your mom or some sort of support person, a coach, a therapist who is able to support you through it.
And you make sure you prioritize that and maintain that and make sure you’re doing enough of that good stuff to really support you in going through that other big priority at the time. So that is just It’s a little bit of a conversation that I wanted to share around the idea of balance versus harmony.
It’s something that I find comes up in conversations. I think we can be really quick to say like, Oh, just trying to find that balance between the things. There’s a lot on my plate, just trying to figure it out in like a way that’s good. And again, that’s just that perfectionism. False idea of what we should be that is coming through and when we’re able to pause and shift that perspective towards harmony, I think that’s where we’re able to find a lot more flow within things.
And if you are looking for support to really help you with doing enough of that good stuff, feeling fulfilled, feeling nourished and rested from the inside out, not through distractions or numbing yourself and that kind of rest that I think can be the go to’s for many in terms of just numbing out on TV or scrolling your phone or just sleeping and like sleep is very important and There’s other more restful, more nourishing things you can do, like meditation and breathwork and different embodiment practices.
And I have my unapologetic practices collection. It is going through a revamp right now. I’m really excited to release it to you. It’s something that has been in the works for geez, a couple months, I think at this point, and there is just a lot more well rounded again, I think it’s found that harmony with what is in the space to offer you, to support you and really coming home to yourself.
Feeling empowered as your true self, using your voice, really igniting, that life force energy, that sexual energy and just really supporting you as a multifaceted woman. So if you are interested in hearing more when I fully reveal this revamp that I’ve been working on, you can head to the link in the show notes to get on the waitlist.
You’ll be the first to hear about things and there will be some live practices mixed into it, which I am Excited to share. I won’t go on too much. Thank you so much for listening. I would love to hear from you in how this perspective shift lands for you. Balance versus harmony. Feel free to shoot me a DM on Instagram.
Letting me know your thoughts. Are you team bounce? Is there something that’s really holding strong for you? Why you prefer that or are you like, yes, harmony is totally the way to go. That is what I’m going to focus on. Love to hear your thoughts. It’s at janine. mckinnon on Instagram. And I would so appreciate if you were to leave a rating or review.
It helps this podcast reach more people like you to spread this message, empowering one woman at a time who listens to these different episodes. So thank you again, wishing you a wonderful week ahead. Trust yourself and make some magic.
