Empowering Yourself Through Mindful Balance

The business Live in Focused Energy was created to help people live more fulfilling, productive lives by creating balance with all aspects of their lives. My intuition told me that mindfulness was a critical component of gaining that balance and life control. Things I’ve learned studying about ADD have supported that intuition.

First, you have to have the interest and attitude to support living a life of high performance. Learning the logic and techniques of that lifestyle is the next step. The final step is the most important, though: having the mindfulness to keep working on the techniques you learn. This is especially important for ADDers. If you let your guard down you’ll most likely slip back into your old ways. Old habits can be hard to break.

People say that working on a mindful life is hard. It does take effort, that’s true. “Effort” could be translated to “being hard”, but it doesn’t have to be hard. The counter question, though, is whether care-free living is easy. It sure sounds glamorous. Is it?

Here’s the story of my glamorous, carefree life starting as a young adult. You’ll be jealous, I’m sure! It started with bedtimes, going to sleep and rising when I wanted. Traveling to the far reaches of the world, fitting work in as I could — while at home and on the road. Attending club meetings and social events most days of the week. Interesting people and lots of laughter. New experiences I hadn’t even anticipated. It was fun and exciting.

Behind the carefree lifestyle was the chaos of a laundry backlog, unprocessed mail piled high on my desk, projects stacking up, unwashed dishes, and piles of miscellaneous stuff around the house. Friends I was starting to lose touch with. I didn’t have time to take care of basics, and it showed if you peeked behind the front door.

It also showed if you experienced my increasing tension and crankiness from the stress of being so far behind in every area of my life. My fuse was short, and sense of humor and patience lacking. I wasn’t eating well or exercising, adding to my stress. I was also starting to lose on sleep, which was not good for me either. Then I started having allergy problems, a first for me (I later connected the allergies to the poor diet). Yep, life was glamorous.

I found care-free living to be hard. Very hard.

With all that glamour going on I slowly lost control of my business and my health. I lost my passion and focus. Two mentors accidentally conspired to get me back on track. One helped me with my business, and the other with my attitude. It worked! And with the advent of learning about the ADD piece of my life puzzle, it’s all come together to create a truly glamorous life, a life of balance and mindfulness.

I still travel all over the world and fit work in along the way, have experiences I had never anticipated, meet and interact with interesting people, and laugh a lot. I also stay on top of my diet and exercise, laundry, dishes, and piles of papers and stuff. I maintain a regular-ish sleep pattern and I interact with friends frequently. My stress levels are down and my humor and patience are up. Part of that comes from having a morning and evening ritual, bookends to my mindful and productive day.

The difference between the before and after is my intention and mindfulness. It does mean saying “No”, prioritizing, and doing first things first. It means setting and honoring goals, using some time management tool or another, eating healthfully, and exercising regularly and moving often. It actually is easier to live mindfully than in a care-free way.

I do still get out of balance at times when I get caught up in doing too much and not saying “No” enough. That happens when I lose sight of my goals and priorities. It takes effort to stay mindful — and it’s worth it to me.

My mental attitude is better, my health is better, and my business is better because I’m making smarter decisions. I feel stronger, empowered to be who I know I am. The power that comes from being in charge of my life is rejuvenating, too. I have to stay on top of it all, and it’s worth it to me. I didn’t enjoy the care-free approach to my life, in hindsight.

Are you ready to take control of your life and feel on top of your world? It’s time to get mindful and balance all the elements of your life. It’s time to regain your power.