Unearthing Inner Zen

On my spiritual journey through this life, I've gained some wisdom and perspective along the way that has helped me to reach this turning point in midlife.  I believe that the majority of us want to live a healthy balanced lifestyle, but find it difficult to put into practice.  Many of us fall into the trap of putting so much emphasis on building up our careers that we make light of the fact that we are actually skirting our duty to take care of ourselves and our families the way we should. Others devote so much time and energy into making sure that their children's lives are fulfilling, allow their own personal development as well as adult relationships to suffer.  Don't get me wrong, I think it's extremely important to make sure your children's needs are met on a daily basis and that you are there for them whenever they need  you, but when does your life stop and their's begin? It is all too common for parents (especially mothers) to forget about their own need to continue to grow and develop as a person while raising their children.  Some may even take offense to the fact that someone (like me) would tell them otherwise.  Usually if you have jumped right into a relationship or marriage before you had time to develop on your own as an individual (that means living a single lifestyle on your own and getting to know and like the real you) then 9 times out of 10 you probably have lost or have never known a part of yourself that is an essential component to who you are and is longing to be nurtured.  There are so many other scenarios out there that can be mentioned, but the bottom line is, if you are not feeling fulfilled as an individual, you cannot be living a truly healthy balanced lifestyle.  And that is not okay. 

I starting this blog in order to stay focused on my own objective to live out the second half  of my journey on this earth with consistent joy and balance in my life.  My ultimate goal is to live a healthy balanced life on a daily basis (Zen).  I find that practicing to live in the moment each and every day is one of the essential ingredients to unearthing inner Zen.  To me this also means being honest with myself and learning to accept all of my feelings and emotions as they come up without judgment.  It takes too much energy to deal with regret about what you didn't accomplish in the past or what you hope to achieve in the future.  Stress and anxiety from over thinking and worrying can rob you of present joy and peace and even steal years from your life if you let it.  Unfortunately, I know this from first hand experience (which I will talk about at another time).  There are so many external forces out there prompting us to try the latest diet craze to lose weight or buy the  new cutting edge exercise equipment that costs more money than we can actually afford all in an effort to make us feel better about ourselves.  While it is true that we may need to lose the weight or become healthier in some way, the only way we will inevitably regain our footing (balance) in our life is to quiet ourselves (mind) down and listen to what our inner self is directing us to do.