In today’s society, it seems like work:life has become an impossible feat to achieve. With work invading our personal lives more and more, it can be hard to find time for anything else.
But what if there were ways we could show ourselves more compassion and create a better equilibrium? What if we thought about this more from the angle of work:life harmony instead of balance?
When we are striving for work:life balance I think we are being too hard on ourselves and create this version of perfect that we are trying to achieve. This doesn’t show any compassion to ourselves.
If we have a hard time showing compassion to ourselves, then it is likely that we will also have a hard time showing compassion to others. And if the world needs anything right now, it would be more compassion.
We all are born with a natural tendency to defend and to fight but never forget that “Beneath the instinct to fight there lurks a divine instinct to love.” -Inazo Nitobe
It is more than ok to love yourself first in order to more fully love others. If we instead start to consider that our working and personal lives can coexist in more of a harmonious state it becomes a little easier to manage mentally.
There are some easy things that we can all start doing or do more of:
✅ – scheduling breaks for ourself so that the work doesn’t become endless
✅ – taking ourselves on a walk out in nature to clear our head and reset
✅ – being ok when things don’t go as planned because no plan is perfect
When we are showing ourselves more compassion it makes the process of finding harmony so much easier. The Japanese term chōwa (調和) can be thought of as searching for natural balance and harmony.
When we are in search of this natural harmony we begin to think about problems from a much different perspective.
We will judge ourselves less and have more empathy and sympathy for the day-to-day life we are leading.
The way to build more equilibrium toward the work:life harmony you want is by not looking for a perfect balance. Rather consider that life can be perfectly imperfect providing that it resonates with your being.
#worklifeharmony #ikigai #chowa #harmony
Steve Beauchamp 