How To Bring Balance Into Your Busy Life

A new way to align with your physical, mental and soul body

Jean Edelman: Hi, I'm Jean Edelman. For decades, I've been a student of the healing arts, Reiki, traditional Chinese medicine, homeopathy, acupuncture, plant-based and macrobiotic cooking. Join me on this journey and hear my word of the week. 

This week I want to talk about three glass jars. It is extremely difficult to see a higher learning when we're in the middle of a health scare. The stay in early January that I had at the hospital set me on such a journey to look for the greater learning in a pretty traumatic moment in my life. So what was the greater learning? To slow down, quit pushing through (this is what I learned from my dad's side of the family), and to nourish my soul. So what I want to share with you is something to help you visualize three glass jars.  

The first jar is our physical body. The second jar is our mind and our mental body. And the third jar, I'm going to call it our soul body. In daily life, two of these jars are probably overflowing and ready to explode, and the third jar probably doesn't even exist for a lot of us. The physical jar; the physical body - this is our constant motion, our doing, our being, our busy, busy, busy. We're exhausted. We're committed. No time for ourselves. Our mental jar, our mind is overthinking, constantly thinking, stress, anger, frustration, loops of emotion. Our soul jar. This is the one where we get to connect to ourselves, our learning, our being. This jar we need to give a little more attention to so that all three jars are a little bit more in flow and alignment.  

And so the action item for this week is our physical jar. When we see this jar overflowing or notice it's almost overflowing, we need to stop. Take account of where we are. Ask what is so important. Physically sit down. Get a glass of water. Take a breath. Stop physically moving around and just pause. Then maybe the jar won't fill up and explode on us. 

Next, our mental jar, our mind. This is when we're overthinking, we're stressing. We're too stuck in the details. We're mired in the muck. This is a time for us to go outside. Get some fresh air. Go sign up for a yoga class where we are in movement and in breath and we are out of our minds and in our bodies.

And now our soul jar. This is where we take time for ourselves. This is where maybe we take time in the morning before we get out of bed. Where we stretch, we breathe. Maybe we sit down and we journal where we create our gratitude journals, where we say, “Hey, we're a really amazing human being and acknowledge ourselves for the beautiful soul we are.” And we all have an amazing purpose in life, no matter where we are and what we're doing or what we're going through. Whatever it is, we can fill this jar because we're just beautiful, beautiful human beings here.  

And so when we've got the three jars kind of flowing and ebbing, when we're stopping to take a rest, when we're outside of nature and taking our classes, when we're thinking positively and nourishing ourselves, we've got more balance and flow in our life. It's all about our human journey. And these three jars can help us visualize how it can ebb and flow. Maybe just being aware of the three. Maybe when we wake up in the morning, they're empty and maybe just being aware during the day. Okay, well, let's stop doing the physical. Let's go take a yoga class and maybe let's go draw or do something fun that we really want to do. Having this visualization helps us take the moments that we need to have a great day.  

And so Word of the Week is JAR. 

J is for Join. We're meant to join the pieces of our physical, our mental, and our soul bodies. It may not seem that way, but one whole breath, one whole being, and a beautiful soul on this planet - that's what we are. And that's what having control and visualizing these three jars can help us with.  

The A is to Align. When we're in alignment, there is ease, there's ease in our breath. There's ease in our day. There's ease in our moments. When we're out of alignment, that's when there's constantly struggle and frustration and anger and hardships. So when we can check in with ourselves and ask, “What do we need? Do we need some time off? Do we need a different job? What changes are needed? And do we have the courage to make them?” 

And R is for Rally. When we come together for our personal greater good, our greater physical health, our greater mental health and our soul health, that is when we can have great impact. That is when we can have great changes because we're being the best version of ourselves. 

So visualize these jars. Pay attention. The beginning of the day, they're empty. At the end of the day, how did we do? Do a little check at night. If they're overflowing, just adjust the next day. The beauty is that we can change. We can change and grow and be better each day. Have a wonderful week. 

-----