Are you living a balanced life?

Give yourself a score for how happy you are in life at present. The scale is between 0 (miserably unhappy) and 10 (ecstatically happy). If you have given yourself 8 or above, probably you do not need to read this blog any further. If you have given yourself 7 or below, you should read further very carefully to improve your happiness.

When you have bumpy ride, either the road is not smooth or the wheels are not in good shape. This applies to life’s journey as well. When the road in life’s journey is not smooth, most likely you have chosen a path that does not align your heart with your head. I will deal with that topic in another blog. In this blog, I will discuss how to check the wheel of life to find unbalanced areas of your life. It is wise to check the wheels before blaming the road for a bumpy ride.

“Everyone is a house with four rooms: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Unless we go into every room every day, even if to keep it aired, we are not a complete person”. ~ Rummer Gorden

The "Wheel of Life" is a simple tool that can help you to find out how balanced is your life. In general, the wheel of life consists of 8 segments:

·        Health

How healthy are you? Do you have any disease that causes physical and mental pain? As discussed in a previous blog, healthy people are always bursting with energy. Are you feeling active and energetic or lazy and lethargic most of the time?

·        Physical Environment

Are you physically and mentally comfortable with your physical environment? Does it make you feel safe and secure? Or are you constantly thinking of changing your physical surroundings?

·        Family and Friends

Do you have good physical and emotional supports from your family? Do you have friends who truly care for your success? Or, do you have only good time acquaintances that disappear during your bad time?

·        Romance

Have you experienced genuine love that makes you feel at the top of the world? Have you merely “fallen” in love or does romancing that special person in your life make you “rise” in love? Does your love grow more beautiful and precious with time?

·        Finances

Do you have enough money to live a comfortable life? Or, are you simply putting yourself to distress to earn more money for supporting a luxurious life? Do you realize deep within that money does not contribute to enhancement of happiness beyond a certain income?

·        Fun and Recreation

Do you have a healthy and engaging hobby to have fun and recreation? Or, do you spend your leisure time in activities that drain out your physical and mental energy?

·        Business and Career

Do you love your work? Or, does the thought of going to work on Monday morning bring emotional distress to you? Are you happy with your present career choice? Does your present career provide you with opportunities for the best use of your talent? Or, are you simply dragging your feet all through the work day while thinking of doing something else?

·        Personal Growth

Are you only busy in the struggle for survival, stability and success in your life? Or, do you also have time to think about the significance of your life? What is your legacy except for your children and tangible assets? How does your life enhance the life of people who come in contact with you?

Take a printout of the diagram shown here, and then mark yourself a score in the scale of 0 to 10 in each area of your life. If you join these points on this diagram, you will create a closed loop. The deviation of this loop from a circle reflects the imbalance in your life. Having a smaller circle is better than having a larger but distorted loop. The first step towards happiness is to think how to bring back the balance in your wheel of life by making it closer to a circle.


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