When have you felt most in balance?

I worked with a teacher who taught that life balance is attained through 4 components: work (meaning right livelihood), prayer (meaning what you do to connect to the source and nourish your spirit), play (meaning goal-less activities - things to do 'just for the fun of it') and rest (meaning down time - just 'being' time - not sleep). These four components take on different percentages for each person and can also shift with your own individual cycles. Sometimes in order to feel in balance you might have a higher percentage of work and lower play or rest, etc. It's for us to do a check-in to determine which area needs more attention. Life balance will look different for each person and will vary throughout our own lives.

My current assessment for myself is I need WAY more play and rest and some more prayer. I get flying colors in the work area (my work is right livelihood - yeah - although takes up an inordinant amount of my time and energy).

I have found that it's helpful especially for those high in the work component to make a list of what is play to you? What is rest to you? that way when you have a moment and know you need to do either, you don't have to spend an hour figuring out what to do! (note - one of the items on my play list is reading fiction - these don't need to be complicated things!)

To the question - when have I felt most in balance? When I was a nun living in a monastery  - still doing all the work I do now and very active in the world. I think the difference was that I had a true sanctuary as a home base - my spirit was being nourished daily. I also made play and rest a priority (roller blading on the green belt every day for 5 miles minimum - sitting by the river...). I had more single-pointed focus.