We can find balance in simple efforts to increase our health. Drinking lots of clean water, deep breathing clean air, practicing yoga, tai chi, regular meditation, prayer, martial arts, and even gardening are all activities that increase balance. Pursuits in fine arts, performing arts, and charity work can also increase our sense of balance. We allow commercial interests to define, limit an unbalance us when we allow and accept label of consumer. When we struggle to earn a living and seem to make no headway, we also become limited and limits create imbalance. Imbalance adds new limits and creates more imbalance. Unlimit, find balance and peace balance creates.

Life is cyclical. Even as we go through simple cycles of digestion and sleep, our balance points shift. Sometimes we sense it as an energy change. Both astrology and numerology can be most helpful in discovering longer cycles in our lives. They can help us see that in different points in cycles and as cycles change, we express different desires, concerns and behaviors. I am in a 27 year cycle in which self is main focus. I am learning self awareness and self improvement. If I am not careful, I can become self defeating and self destructive. I think these things are good to know and help me with balance. There are many ways to obtain balance; key is sensing when you are out of balance. That means paying attention to yourself.

Ed Howes

For more Ed thoughts go to Bedinghamstudio.com

To respond, write edhowes@Hotmail.com

· Alice took my Strengths course and said it brought tears to her eyes. “I thought of a little lost child,” she wrote me. “How far I’ve gotten away from myself. How much I long to find me again.” She’s gone on a search.

· Marisa spent 20 years in a career her StrengthsFinder™ Profile showed was an extremely poor choice. Her final year she suffered from chronic back and neck pain, sciatic nerve problems, hostility and migraine headaches. She finally got message her body was sending her. She spent 6 months working with me to figure out what made her feel good, work wise, and has changed fields. “Suddenly I’m making money,” she said, “and rather effortlessly. I find this hard to believe.”

· When Nancy started coaching I asked her, “What would you like to do?” “I have no idea,” she said. “No one’s ever asked me, and I’ve never asked myself.” “Why?” I said. [pause] “Are you supposed to like what you do?” she asked.

Interestingly enough, all of these clients have become entrepreneurs. For each of them money v. something-I-love-to-do was initially a conflict. Each of them has resolved this in a different way, but each of them has shifted from “What will make me most money?” to “What would I really like to be doing?”

I do have younger clients, too.

Sam’s only been working 5 years and wanted coaching on how to get organized. He loves his work. He’s never mentioned money. I asked him at one point about vacations. He said, “I don’t think about vacations. I’m new to my field.” That was sooo wonderful to hear!

Evan started a dot.com and made a lot of money. A hostile-takeover forced him out, but left him with a hearty yearly stipend to leave his name on letterhead. Evan hadn’t even gone to college! What’s he doing now? He’s at Oxford, soaking up formal education he didn’t need to make a fortune, but knew he needed for his soul.

Must you go for money, or go for pleasure? I don’t like any either/or statement, do you? You can have both, you can have neither, and you can also have a third option.

Most people are about as happy as they decide to be (Abraham Lincoln), and most people have about as many options as they decide to have. If you see it as a choice between two, then it will be. If you use your EQ, think outside box, and consider possibilities, then you can generate options and solutions. If you think it has to be either/or, how has this worked for you so far?

Martin Seligman, Ph.D., (http://www.authentichappiness.com) thinks authentic happiness comes from knowing what your signature strengths are, and being able to use them for a higher purpose.

I think Martin Seligman, Ph.D., has a point there!