Balance

If you haven't yet read the Note for Context above and then enjoy

We are all made up of different parts that all work together. Some parts are seen and some are not. We are physical, relational, mental, emotional and spiritual. We are much more than this but this is a broad explanation. These five parts all effect each other and are meant to be balanced. If we focus too much attention to one than the others can be neglected and your whole self will suffer. In this same way when we fall to struggle it destroys every part. Only by recognizing the interconnected nature of our parts can we remove struggle from our whole self. Understanding our parts helps us to understand that all struggle starts because at least one part of our self is lacking. We choose to try to fill that empty space with the thing that later becomes our struggle. The faster we realize that struggle is a symptom of an existing imbalance in one or more of our parts the faster we can begin to treat the cause of struggle then removing the need for the struggle.
We tend tend to move from one part to another. The body builder who's physical self looks great but can't seem to stop gambling. The mathematician who spends so much time learning about math that he has no relationships. We tell ourselves that if one part is ok than the whole is ok. If it can't destroy all parts than we are often happy to settle and take four out of five.
That is why many people can overcome a specific struggle in their lives and still not see a real change. Someone may stop drinking and that is great, sad to smoke twice as many cigarettes and start eating terrible to die of lung cancer and a heart attack at an early age. We must recognize struggle in every part of ourselves and then began a total retraining of our body, mind, relationships, emotional responses and our spirituality including exposing ourselves to positivity.

*Funny to see that I wrote this. when I did I was married with 2 dogs, four foster kids going to a church, a very different picture than my current life.I have struggled to balance my social part of me to other parts but also think that as we age we go more quality and less quantity in our relationships at least I have. Plus lets face it work takes up a lot of time. I spend less time with people but feel like the people I do spend time with fill me with so much more than shallow relationships...plus I have a cat. Learning a lot from reflecting on these old writings.