{"id":1322,"date":"2012-07-02T10:56:45","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T15:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/?p=1322"},"modified":"2012-07-02T10:56:45","modified_gmt":"2012-07-02T15:56:45","slug":"its-a-balancing-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/?p=1322","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s a Balancing Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A lot of the time in therapy and in life, we tend to focus on the negative, the hardships, and the challenges in our lives. \u00a0This is not bad. \u00a0In fact, this is totally normal, often expected, and needed. \u00a0I am a firm believer in letting ourselves give proper attention and appreciation to the tough parts of life. \u00a0It doesn&#8217;t ever really feel so great to go through, but I have found the experience to be important for growth and learning.<\/p>\n<p>Something I keep going back to in life is the importance of balance. \u00a0Too much time dedicated to the deep end of our darkness and struggles \u00a0might end up drowning us. \u00a0Perhaps it could be helpful to give our muscles a break and retreat to a different part of the pool for a bit. \u00a0Not necessarily the shallow end (although that could be needed too), but a part that is just as deep but feels a little lighter, perhaps a little clearer, has less murkiness to trudge through, and a part that embraces our bodies with warmth.<\/p>\n<p>Taking some time to explore this part of the pool might be helpful in balancing out the darkness we may feel a lot of the time. \u00a0For me, exploring this area sometimes simply means\u00a0<em>reflecting<\/em> on the good parts of my life, the parts that bring a smile to my face and a warmth in my heart. \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/20843_715218953492_7462672_n.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1324\" src=\"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/20843_715218953492_7462672_n-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/20843_715218953492_7462672_n-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/20843_715218953492_7462672_n-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/20843_715218953492_7462672_n.jpg 604w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Sometimes this means <em>doing\u00a0<\/em>those things that fill me with laughter, joy, and contentment. \u00a0For me, leading one of my military family camps and being a catalyst in helping families reconnect really fills me up with so much thankfulness and passion. \u00a0Or those times when you can let loose with your friends, clear the living room and dance wildly and freely while letting your inhibitions surrender to goofiness, spontaneity, and acceptance.<\/p>\n<p>Do you think it would be worth it to swim to this other side of the pool for a little while? \u00a0If you find yourself feeling curious to do so, what are those things that help balance out the darkness? \u00a0What are the things in your life that bring you warmth, fulfillment, and contentment?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lot of the time in therapy and in life, we tend to focus on the negative, the hardships, and the challenges in our lives. \u00a0This is not bad. \u00a0In fact, this is totally normal, often expected, and needed. \u00a0I am a firm believer in letting ourselves give proper attention and appreciation to the tough parts of life. \u00a0It doesn&#8217;t<a href=\"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/?p=1322\"> Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[116],"coauthors":[19],"class_list":["post-1322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-emotions-2","tag-balance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/20843_715218953492_7462672_n.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1322"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1328,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322\/revisions\/1328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1322"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectiveinquiry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=1322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}