The Art of Balancing

“It’s all a balancing act…”

That phrase always rings a bell for me. It’s one of those statements that can end any conversation with everyone nodding in quiet agreement.

Lately, I’ve been realizing the importance of this balancing act more than ever. I went through a couple of health scares while also hosting a guest from out of town. The people-pleaser in me didn’t want to bring up my health concerns and risk making my guest anxious or worried. Only later did it hit me: honoring myself needed to come first. I was hurting, and swallowing my feelings just to make others comfortable wasn’t helping anyone.

Taking up space, honoring my boundaries, and thinking less about me and more about we are all mantras that resonate, but they require a lot of work and, of course, balance.

Sometimes I feel torn because I don’t know which way to go. It’s like a pendulum swinging between people-pleasing and self-focus, and finding that middle ground can be incredibly difficult.

What I do know is that when my intuition starts screaming, it’s a sign to pause and speak up. Not in a way that’s abrupt or loud, but with a steady firmness that still gets my message across.

I think a lot of this ties into black-and-white thinking too. Not everything has to be one way or the other, though my brain loves to categorize things that way. It’s simple and safe, but it’s also unrealistic. The truth is, life is mostly grey. We all muddle through days, sometimes even years, in that in-between space. But those glimpses of clarity we get along the way—they’re worth it. They remind us to keep going and keep balancing.

One day, I hope all of this will turn into clear waters that finally make sense. But if it doesn’t, I need to be okay with that too. Life is complicated. Things are rarely what they seem. Learning to adjust, to shift with new perspectives in real time, is what keeps us afloat.

It’s all a balancing act: riding the waves of life, one moment at a time.