Work-Life Balance?

And if you’re an entrepreneur, a budding entreprenuer, or if you have any kind of professional career at all, you might be really familiar with this concept of not feeling caught up on things.

Hello team! It’s me, Christopher Lawrence, with ChangeMyLifeCoaching.ca, career and life coach. I wanted to talk to you today. I came in on a Saturday just to get caught up on a few things, and if you’re an entrepreneur, a budding entrepreneur, or if you have any kind of professional career at all, you might be really familiar with this concept of not feeling caught up on things, and I thought this is a great opportunity to do a video, and have a conversation about that.

Does Work-Life Balance Exist?

So, you know, sometimes we just feel like we’re so busy, or that we’re so stressed out, and we never really seem caught up on things. Which is kind of how I’m feeling this Saturday. This particular Saturday, you know, and then we’ve got family coming into town, we had family just leave. I mean, you’ve been there, I’m sure, right? So, I start to think about this thing, this concept of work-life balance, and I don’t really feel like I believe in work-life balance because to me, work-life balance looks like this.

What Is Work-Life Flow?

So, my question is, how can you sustain that? How long can you sustain balance? And do you know anybody who’s really ever achieved balance? Uh, I don’t. Like, what I have met, and what I experience most of the time, is what I like to call work-life flow. So, where sometimes work gets a little more, sometimes life gets a little bit more, but whatever that is, I feel pretty good about it. And so, I think work-life flow is far more important than work-life balance because balance is the achievement of a very specific thing. Whereas work-life flow implies that there’s flexibility, which is what we need, because sometimes work is gonna need more, and sometimes life is gonna need more. So, then the question is, how do you actually get into that flow?

Parasympathetic Versus The Sympathetic Nervous System

Well, this is where we talk about the parasympathetic versus the sympathetic nervous system. So, I find that I have the best flow when I’m deliberately practicing getting into my parasympathetic nervous system. Hopefully, I don’t have these backward. So, your sympathetic nervous system is your stress response, it’s when you’re feeling, you know when you’ve activated when you’re busy, that kind of thing. Whereas the parasympathetic is when we’re kind of in our relaxed state. That feeling that you get, feels nice, right? So, the idea is that we deliberately practice going into our parasympathetic nervous state, and create a habit of doing that, rather than focusing on the balance of time, you know, between work and home.

How to Get Into Your Parasympathetic Nervous System State

So, getting into our parasympathetic nervous system can be done quite easily. It can be done through meditation, going through a light walk, listening to your favourite music, or anything that just kind of makes you go. If you’re finding that it’s hard to get there, it’s probably because you’re used to living in your sympathetic nervous system. So, what I would suggest is that you just implement little daily practices of things that are enjoyable, bring your heart rate down, and get into that really relaxed state. Sleep gets you into your sympathetic nervous system, but there are some people who sleep in there, or sorry, sleep gets you into your parasympathetic nervous system, but there are some people who sleep in their sympathetic nervous system, which means that they’re like activated even in their sleep. If you’re somebody who’s ever had, like, an anxiety attack in the middle of the night while you’re sleeping, you fall into that category.

So, anyway, lots of different things that you can do. Definitely do some more research on this, and let me know how it’s going. I’d love to hear what puts you in your parasympathetic nervous system. My name is Christopher Lawrence, I’m with ChangeMyLifeCoaching.ca, and looking forward to hearing your responses. Thank you!

Here’s a great blog on Remembering Your Future Self!

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