29: Finding Balance
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Jo: Hello. Beautiful soul and welcome back to the podcast. This week's episode is being recorded in my closet because it's one of the best soundproof rooms in my house. And. This week has been [00:01:00] a little hectic as far as my schedule goes and next week is the same. I've got a jam packed schedule. And that's a good thing, right? It's a good thing for the business. And it also means that I need to find a little bit more balance. So if you hear my daughter in the background right now, it's because she is here beside me. And I'm recording at home because of my jam packed schedule. It's just how it's going to be this week. What I really want to talk to you about today is finding balance. Because I have gotten asked a lot in my life and lately. How I find balance between everything, between working as a nurse, between the business between a family life with kids and I was in the air force reserve at one point and going through nursing school and all of the things. And people used to comment on how. I looked like I had it all together. I want to be really clear and really transparent with you that. [00:02:00] That's not always the case. And I feel like having it all together sometimes is a little overrated and a little unattainable. What I mean by that is that I don't really know that anybody will ever be able to balance every single area of their life. It's more like an ebb and a flow or a pendulum swinging where one area is going to demand a little bit more of your attention than the others for a little while. And then that's going to switch. It's going to change over time, depending on what season you're in.
I was having a chat with one of my clients the other day about how she felt like everybody was like the captain of their ship. And how they had a clear direction and they looked like they knew what they were doing.
And this brought up a couple of things for me, the first being that from the outside looking in, it seems like people have it all together. And the thing is I've talked to so many women over the past couple of days who don't feel like they have it all together and[00:03:00] don't feel like they have a clear direction or purpose in life. So it's easy for us to kind of judge people's lives from the outside, looking in from what other people are displaying for us to see. One of the things that I asked her was if she even wanted to be a captain of a ship. Maybe she wanted to hop in a kayak and go kayaking down the river instead of sitting in the ocean or sailing the ocean. So this idea of achieving balance in life, striving for balance in life. I feel has really led so many of us to put ourselves down or to think that we're broken because we're not balanced in every single area of our life at all times. And what I've come to realize what I've come to experience is that there will be certain parts of your life that demand more of your attention. Depending on what season you're in. So for me, my work, my career is [00:04:00] demanding more attention of me right now. And I feel a lot more unbalanced than normal, but that's because my business is going through this period of growth and expansion and I'm really having to pay extra attention to those other areas of my life. So that I don't feel like I'm completely falling apart. Which is why I am recording this podcast in my closet. With my daughter next to me. She's currently putting on setting powder in the mirror. And she's got some Wednesday Adams vibes going on right now. It's actually pretty cute. So my question for you is, are you striving to maintain this kind of. Elusive balance of your life, where everything seems perfect. Everything is flowy all the time. Or are you honoring your seasons and your cycles where one area of your life might demand a little bit more attention then others and not getting down on yourself. When that happens, are you nurturing yourself? Are you taking [00:05:00] care of yourself? Are you honoring yourself through them? Or are you getting down on yourself because you're not perfect. You don't feel perfect. I used to do that. I was one to kind of put myself down. I say kind of, I really put myself down. And I was really mean to myself. Things that I would say to myself were not anything that I would say to anybody else. And I would say them to myself over and over and over and over again. It became this pattern that I noticed that would come around. Every time. I felt like my life wasn't completely under my control. The negative spiral would start that negative thought spiral. You know where one thought leads to another thought, which leads to another thought, which leads to suddenly you're the worst person on the planet. And don't deserve to be here. If you've ever had one of those spirals, you know exactly what I'm talking about and the thing is they're not true. Those are huge, huge lies. Recognizing [00:06:00] these spirals in the moment and stepping back and realizing that there lies. Is a pretty big deal. For most of my life when these spirals would start I just believed them to be true and eventually over time as I've been on this mindset journey I started to recognize them as lies in the moment. And even though I recognize them as lies in the moment, I still let them get to me. I still let them make me feel some kind of way. And then eventually there came a day where I recognized these thoughts in the moment. And I was in the shower. I physically took a step back and mentally. And I was like, wait, these are all lies. All of these are lies. And they stopped. That was a really big moment for me because I was like, whoa. I really like all of the. Wow. And I haven't had a thought spiral since then. Like every once in a while it thought would pop up. But I immediately recognize it as a lie. There was one time recently where I thought spiral tried to [00:07:00] set in. And I did try to entertain it for a moment. But there was that part of me that stepped in that was like, no, Like we don't have to entertain this because it's not true. You don't have to entertain this. So for anybody out there. Who's having these negative thoughts, spirals. Like I was know, that it can be another way. It took me a long time and a lot of work. To be able to get to this point. But when it happened, it was. Kind of out of the blue and very surprising and. Do I still get sad? Yes. Do I still get upset with myself sometimes? Yes. But it's not to the point where I will have a thought that then it leads to another thought that then it's like, oh, you're the worst person ever. How could you let this happen? that then leads to all of the super negative stuff. I don't have those anymore. So that's pretty cool. But anyway, back to balance, right? We're talking about balance. What I really encourage you to do is not compare. Your behind the [00:08:00] scenes. To somebody else's highlight reel. Because all we're doing on social media for the most part. He is putting out the highlights, putting out the good stuff. Projecting out things that we want people to see, and we're hiding the behind the scenes. We are taking all of the behind the scenes stuff and we're not putting it out there on display. And that's just part of the world that we live in. So as long as you are doing the best that you can with what you have right now. That's what matters. I honor yourself through your cycles. Remember that we're not trying to achieve perfect. We're just trying to be the best versions of ourselves. And that looks different for everybody. Everybody's journey is unique to them. Everybody's journey is perfect. We're all here to learn. And experienced different things. And it is now time for Evelyn's podcast. So thank you for joining me this week for this [00:09:00] episode. I love you and I will see you next week.
