North Bay Woman

36 NORTH BAY WOMAN S P R I N G | S U M M E R 2 0 2 1 By Lori Pearce W ell being. Work life balance. Family life. Work life. Professional aspiration. Mind, body, spirit. Mental health. Stay at home mom. Mom life. Boss lady. Self care. Boundaries. I could go on with compartments of the places where we are supposed to box up aspects of our lives, but why? Why such separation? If I go back in time, I guess I understand that most of us were taught that our work life and our home life were completely separate. And mental life isn't even supposed to exist. Especially as a working mom or female boss, we were taught that if we brought our home life into work we were somehow weaker. If we brought our assertive work self home we were somehow bitchy. And, don't you dare bring any emotions to any of it. It's exhausting to isolate various aspects of yourself. To keep parts of your life separate as if the other parts didn't exist. And it's even more tiring to try to keep all the parts running efficiently and joyfully. How often do we now hear work-life balance? (I think, too much.) Let's first admit that there really is no balance. Things often change quickly and most often we have no control over those chang- es. If nothing else, we have certainly learned that over this past Covid-filled, politically-charged, racially-challenging year. Work-life balance was a myth before that, but has certainly been brought to the forefront these past months. So, if there is no balance and there's way too many compartmental- izations, what is there? Life! Let me suggest that it's just life. Sim- ply, life. And, it's how we act, react and judge our life that ultimately balances us and brings us happiness. Sounds simple, and I know it's not. In fact it may be harder, at first, to just be and to integrate our wholeness than it is to stay divided. In the long game though, a whole puzzle is stronger than the individual pieces. In our modern, connected, and even somewhat enlightened world, how can this work? CONSIDER: n ACCEPT. Acceptance of the pres- ent is actually relaxing and joyful. That doesn't mean settling, it just means to live presently and intentionally no The Work-Life Puzzle If there is no balance and there's way too many compartmentalizations, what is there? Life!

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