We often blame the pace of our lives to be the real culprit for not finding time for the many jobs we thought we should have done but could not do in the end, and believe that if we manage our time better we will be able to equalize time spent on our priorities. We often see our balance problems as coming from too many conflicting demands. These demands come from work, home, personal commitments, society, and our own personal needs.

With all the competing demands on our time, we usually tend to slot our own personal priorities in last. Because they are last, we rarely get to them. And interestingly enough, that is when we feel most out of balance and the most stressed. Did you ever notice that when you’re feeling most out of balance, much of the world around you seems to be in a chaos?

Well, our world is a reflection of our inner world. Whenever we are disturbed or irritated, the reason for any wrong-happening is always somebody else. Imbalance invariably makes our vision other-oriented. The search for balance is so elusive because we are looking in the wrong place. We are seeking to fix things outside of or around us in order to achieve balance. Balance comes from inside first and then it is reflected around us. If that is the case then, how, do we go about achieving balance?

It is in understanding ourselves better - our priorities, motivations and values. Self-evaluation, contemplation, meditation - all those that work to still and settle the mind - are necessary to lead a more meaningful and purposeful life, because from these come a sense of balance and a mind more discerning. We can be responsible and perceptive only when we are centred from within. It is the peace and not the pace of our lives that is the problem. Internal calm, or the lack of it, are the states of our minds that lead us to feel in – or out of – balance.