Work Life Balance

Last Updated On: 16 June 2026

What has life balance come to mean in society. Is work-life balance a myth. Is there more to it once we cast a Sherlock type magnifying glass over what it really means. The question is more about what the term means to you? There is a pendulum that swings left to right where one week you’re mad busy with the family, kids, partner and/or social events.

The next it’s a tad calmer where you find yourself enjoying digging into the weeds of your latest creative project, fathoming the challenges and solutions as new idea spring forth bearing fruit. Sometimes all of the above are happening at any one time where the idea of balance is:

One. Step Beyond.

I get it as well as the impact that stress can play a much bigger part than you’d ideally like it to, or often realise it is playing while it’s happening. Because you’re in it, you’re getting on with it. A bit like the proverbial Overton window (you can tell I’m editing this in the future) where the change happens so incrementally, you adjust because you have to, in the moment, while managing not to see the overview. The real impact. You adapt to a certain level of intensity. where sometimes it feel like you’re thriving on it.

Or you cope though a variety of coping strategies, tried and tested, not withstanding the caffeine fuelled fixes. Ultimately, you might find yourself flipping out at a minion, then feeling pants, in the aftermath. Or does it make you feel horrible because you know, you are better, and your response went beyond what the moment called for. But then feel bad because you’re not sure how to reign it back and keep your pride.

Finding More Balance

However, you wouldn’t be human if you hadn’t made some poor decisions, in life, or not shown up how you’d wanted to because of what you knew was an undetectable force of circumstances that took you in a certain, unpredictable, sometime unrecognisable direction. What I’ve learned in wearing an extensive practitioner hat, is that there’s a lot more cause and effect territory to explore than many of us knew or know now.

Behaviour is a barometer of what’s going on, in the psyche and it’s lovely companion, the nervous system. How we respond to life’s challenges mostly stems from a mixture of nurture, nature and lived experience. Being influenced by others in life starts from the get-go. Aimed at keeping us safe much of it depends in the early years on the quality of the attention received, as much of how we learn to copy in life and feel safe stems from the early doors experience. The best influences come from those we know have our backs, who it’s a pleasure to learn from because they’re invested in your best interests and you instinctively know when you’re with the right people because:

• it’s like you’ve known them all your life
• they speak the same language
• they’re what I coin ‘same pagitis’ 🙂

For me, there’s an unwritten understanding that inclusivity sits at the heart of your value system. When this operates at it’s best then head, heart and gut instinctively work together in flow, you attract people with similar energy, you don’t have to explain yourself. You feel guided along a track that: Just. Feels. Right. It helps you attract more like-minded people, work and opportunity into your stratosphere.

Work Stress

When you’re not in sync the stress response so easily creep in, especially when you’re already prone to taking on too much. Then, if you’re not taking care of your wellbeing, you can get too wrapped up in the daily grind which moved you out of feeling your way and bringing in survival mechanism, real or imagined, more than the sense of knowing you’ve committed to a project or an invitation through choice and that you want to be there.

It’s such a different energy, and does in fact have a voice in how your nervous system responds. Heavy and worn down versus light and bright.

When you consider the stress and stressors that build in the workplace, imposed by external forces and then what you take home, it’s no wonder that holiday time sees a lot of people falling ill once they’ve a chance to relax.

META-Medicine has a wonderful explanation for this.

Quality Of Work Life

If you work for others and have to fall in with their timetable, this can mean very early starts, or late finishes. It can make demands on your nervous system, when you’re having to be on, when you’d so rather be off – somewhere else – doing your own thing with the people who get you and feed your soul with their unconditional love.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with a bit of pressure to bring out your best performances, even a bit of good old-fashioned competition, but not seeing the red flags when it comes to overdoing it, is easily done under pressure if you’re living at a pace where everyone wants everything yesterday.

It becomes all too easy to keep taking on more responsibility, when you really want to say no. Especially dare I say it, as a woman, where the pay gap and stereotypes are still alive and kickin’.

Work-Life Balance

But the impact is real, it imposes a strain from the build-up of stress, physiologically and emotionally. So it’s as well to have some decent strategies in place to help you understand your limits, rather than allow yourself to be coerced, due to the underlying pressures of trying keep up appearances, which stem from far further back than than the job at hand.

But how to keep stress from building in order to develop a healthier life balance?

There are a number of factors and the more you can do on a regular (if not daily) basis to reduce stress, the less likely you are to over-react to stressful situations or fall ill, which can throw the body into chaos, resulting in a set of chronic symptoms that give you an out.

Life Balance

This is about prevention rather than cure, at this point, where lifestyle habits contribute greatly as to how you can take the reigns and cultivate a better balance in your life so that you’re alert, ever-ready to experience a better quality and be more present to enjoy the ride.

The alternative is pretty grim; remaining stuck in a foggy haze, with fewer choices as the body disintegrates through a slow, painful, unhealthy aging process. I for one have seen it at close quarters and don’t want to be counted among the fallen.

The decision is about whether you want to stick around and really experience your life in the drivers seat, driver, rather than take the role of a begrudging and miserably critical passenger. Here are a few suggestions to consider:

Meditation

Regular even daily meditation allows you to practice being in silence with yourself and is a lovely way of quietening the mind, being still and peaceful where if you haven’t tried it before, it’s like anything else it just requires practice.

It reduces stress-related cortisol, lowers blood-pressure and improves sleep. and enhancing nervous system regulation. Regular practice also boosts immune function, increases focus, reduces anxiety and depression symptoms, it helps manage chronic pain and compulsions & addiction. It promotes neuroplasticity, fostering increased self-awareness and a positive emotional state. There are lots of digital programmes available, but you’re just as well setting the timer on your phone and closing your eyes for 20-30 minutes once or twice a day.

Daily Diet

Look at what you’re eating, especially emotional eating, because obviously it impacts your wellbeing, partly due to how well your system’s able to digest your intake, how often you eat, i.e. heavy snacking and the quality of food you eat, the quality of the food you buy and your systems ability to absorb minerals and vitamins.

Which means that fresh produce can still be bereft of nutrients the body needs on the daily. The body is automatically calmer when it’s being fuelled by qualitative products, rather than being engaged in battle with high fat, high sugar and high salt products.

Sleep Patterns

Sleep is such an important area; the time you get to sleep and the amount of z’s you manage to get. because according to the circadian rhythm your body needs it’s repair cycle, sleep is a system and worthy of prioritising.

S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Setting some Smart Goals means you’re able to and we’ll look at that again, because we won’t move on with or in our lives unless we set some intention and goal setting is a way of taking conscious-action to have something be different. SMART Goals are:

• S-specific
• M-measurable
• A-attainable
• R-relevant
• T-time bound

Start thinking about what you can do to reduce the stress in your life that allows you to reconnect with yourself, your fab creativity, your partner and our kids.

Ultimately, it’s worthwhile because it helps you develop less ailments as you age, instead of the traditional, more. It brings more balance into your schedule.

Creating a flow state in all you do is the ideal and I want that for you, because it took me such a long time to find my way out of coping strategy habits and health issues that began during my childhood.

When the western medical model tells you to put up with it and keep taking the medicine, it’s a lot when the answers are a much deeper dive into how do you change poor habits, how do you feel better when you can’t get off the stress-cycle of everyone putting on you.

That’s where I come in and if you have questions or want a chat I’m here.

You can also grab my free The Simple Guide To EFT Tapping For Creatives to get the ball rolling. It’s not only about living longer and healthier, it’s important to be happy.