Do you ever just feel "off,” not like yourself, or just out of tune with the rhythm of your life? That's how I felt after getting back home from my grandpa's funeral. Yes, I had entered a new, isolating, grief bubble, but I also just felt all over the place. I felt unbalanced. I knew if I didn't find a way to regain my equilibrium, I'd be stuck in this grief bubble for a lot longer than I would hope. So, today's post is all about the things I did to restore balance in my life. Hopefully these are helpful to you as well!
Ways to Restore Balance:
Morning Stretch or Yoga
Journal Prompts & Worship Music
Fasting or Detoxing
Socializing with friends
Morning Stretch/Yoga
How you start your morning really determines how the rest of your day goes. Usually if I spend an extra hour lounging and watching TikToks on my phone, I end up having a pretty lazy, unproductive day. But when I start my morning with intention, I set myself up for success! I decided to start doing some morning stretches and yoga videos on YouTube to help me feel more balanced. Let me tell you, these stretches helped me in more ways than one. For all my readers in your late 20s and up, you know the importance of a good morning stretch. Waking up at age 29, is stiff and achy. I can't just pop up out of bed, and go like I used to. So, a nice mini yoga session in the morning helps wake up my body, and ease myself into movement that won't trigger any muscle spasms. Another benefit to doing stretches, or yoga in the morning, is the breathing techniques that go along with it. There's tons of studies on the importance of breath work, and I definitely feel the benefits when I'm chillin' in Child's Pose. I just feel so calm and centered when taking deep breaths, as I listen to my body, and embrace mindfulness.
Journaling & Worship Music
Journaling always helps me find balance. It's a moment I take for myself to self evaluate and check in with my emotions. Sometimes it rambles, and other times it's a well written debrief of how I'm feeling. There's a reason why I feel unbalanced, and journaling usually helps me uncover why. As a Christian, listening to worship music also helps me feel centered. It's kind of like taking deep breaths during morning stretches, listening to worship music helps me exhale all the things troubling me, and inhale God's love and peace.
Fasting/Detox
Another thing that was making me feel unbalanced was my diet. I'm no health nut, (anymore, there was a time when I was a gym bro on a Paleo diet lol who even was that?!) but I usually eat pretty healthy. It's not hard to be in LA with all our avocados, health smoothies, and salads are so easily accessible. Arkansas and Texas are not LA, and when you're grieving, the last thing you want is a healthy salad when some delicious, Southern, comfort food is right in front of you. I was only out of town for a week, but the amount of fried food, soda, and pound cake I consumed while in Arkansas and Texas was enough to warrant a detox. I thought about doing a juice cleanse to give my diet a reset, but who knows if those even work. Plus, my budget wouldn't allow it, so I did the next best thing– fasting.
With Lent in full swing and Easter this weekend, it also felt like a good time to start a fast. I could hit two birds with one stone: improve my diet, and get closer to God, both things that could help me restore some balance. After failing a few rigorous fasts, I decided to be vegetarian for the remainder of this month. Two weeks of no meat. I figured this would ultimately help me improve my diet because I'd be forced to rely on vegetables for my main source of nutrition. I still have a few days left of this fast, but already I feel less lethargic than when I ate all that fried catfish and chicken. I even lost a few pounds and had fun trying out new vegetarian recipes!
Socializing with Friends
You can always tell you're in the final leg of your grief bubble when you are ready to start socializing again. Spending time with my friends and family always brings me back to myself. When I got back in town from the funeral, I had friends ready to celebrate my birthday even though plans had been postponed. I even caught up with some old friends I haven't talked to in awhile over Zoom, and I have a girl's night planned for this Sunday! People were never meant to do life alone, and I'm always reminded of this when my mood instantly improves after spending time with the people I love.
These four activities helped me feel grounded, and restored the balance my life has been missing. I’m sure there are various activities you can try. It will be different for each person. However, I think a good model to keep is doing activities that help you slow down, move your body, detox, and connect with others. For example, rather than journaling or listening to worship music to calm your mind and self evaluate, you could slow down by taking a meditating sound bath. Maybe you’d like to do a morning walk or hike to get your body moving. Perhaps you need a break from social media rather than a restrictive diet to help you detox and reset the mind. And maybe you can connect with others by going on dates, or fun social hangs to meet new people! It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you take the time to listen to what your body needs to center yourself once again.
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