The Circle of Life: Finding balance, satisfaction, and health in EVERY AREA of your life
Have you ever tried to find balance in the areas of your life, but just can’t seem to do it?
Has it ever frustrated you that you seem to be thriving in one area, but failing in another? You may be thriving in your health eating program, but failing in spending time with your closest friends. You may even be enjoying your career so much that you have forsaken time to be creative in the area of art you enjoy. Maybe you’ve often felt like balance, satisfaction and health in every area of your life just isn’t possible.
Well, I personally am guilty of all the above and have myself felt frustrated at times. Until pursuing holistic health, imbalance was a common theme in my life. One minute I was doing well in exercise, but forsaking time to be creative through singing and worship. Then sometimes, I was doing horrible in exercise but thriving in areas such as social life and home environment.
It wasn’t until I found useful programs and tools such as First Place 4 Health, the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, and the Circle of Life exercise, that I’ve learned how to identify areas in my life that are out of balance and how to find more satisfaction AND balance in those particular areas.
Therefore, I thought it would be helpful to share with you all what the Circle of Life is and how to use it, so you too can start to work on the particular areas you know OR may not know that you need to have more balance, satisfaction and health in.
What is the Circle of Life?
I first learned about the Circle of Life through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition (IIN) back in July 2015 when I started my health coaching certification program with the school. According to IIN, the purpose of the Circle of Life is to “discover which non-food areas in our lives we are missing, and how to incorporate more joy and satisfaction into our lives.”
The 12 areas in the circle include:
- Spirituality
- Creativity
- Finances
- Career
- Education
- Health
- Physical Activity
- Home Cooking
- Home Environment
- Relationships
- Social Life
- Joy
The idea is that you place dots on each line to indicate how satisfied you are in each of the areas above. A dot closer towards the center indicates you are more dissatisfied with that area and a dot towards the outside or periphery of the circle shows you are more satisfied with that area. Then, you connect all the dots to see how much of a circle it is. Next, you identify areas of dissatisfaction and imbalances, and then determine how you want to spend your time and other resources to create more satisfaction and balance in that area.
Example of a Completed Circle of Life
I’ve personally done the Circle of Life a couple of times since joining IIN and have seen that by intentionally working on the areas that are out of balance in my life, the next time I did the Circle of Life, I was more satisfied in that area – how cool is that?!
So now I challenge you to do the same. Print off the Circle of Life and place dots in each of the 12 areas shown on the circle. Remember that dots closer to the center indicate dissatisfaction and dots closer to the outside indicate satisfaction. Then, connect the dots and identify areas you aren’t as satisfied in.
After completing the Circle of Life, you may feel even more discouraged than before and that your life is chaos. This is a natural reaction to this exercise, but PLEASE do not let that feeling consume you and stop you from moving forward. It’s extremely hard to have a perfect circle (i.e. balance in your life), and everyone I’ve done this with, hasn’t had a perfect circle (including myself). The key is to actually make steps and actions to seek more balance in all areas of your life, in particular those areas that are closer to the inside of the circle. To do this, I encourage you to complete the following steps:
- Identify: Choose the area with the dot closest to the center of the circle
- Make Goals: Write down 1-3 S.M.A.R.T goals (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timely) to achieve more balance and satisfaction in that area
- Check Your Progress: After a month, do the Circle of Life again and see if that area is still ranking closer to dissatisfied than satisfied. If you are more satisfied in that area, great! Keep working at it, BUT also move on and work on another area that is closer to the center of the circle
- Keep Working At It: Then, REPEAT! Keep doing this every month to check in to see how balanced and satisfied you are in all the various areas of your life
To continue to support you in achieving a more balanced and holistically healthy life after completing the Circle of Life, I plan to include various posts focusing on the 12 areas above on Made Well.
However, I would like your help in this! After you have completed the exercise, please respond to this post by leaving a comment on what area of the Circle of Life you struggle with the most and what area you feel like you have the most satisfaction and balance in. From your responses, I will be able to gear the first few Circle of Life posts on the areas you may need more guidance in. Remember, I’m here for you and want to be able to empower you to have your healthiest life possible. So help me help you!
Every time I’ve done the Circle of Life with friends and family, each of them have said it was an eye-opening experience, and one that was useful and helpful to achieving balance in their lives. It would break my heart for you to read this post, not do the exercise, and not also have that eye-opening experience. Please do this exercise and even encourage those closest to you to do it as well, so you can keep each other accountable.
Only through action that WE take can we obtain the healthy and satisfying life we desire. I can’t make your life more satisfying and balanced – only you can. Don’t let another day go by struggling in that one area you identified. I know that if you make balance, satisfaction, and health in every of your life a priority from this day forward, you will achieve health and wholeness in a such a way you never thought possible for you and your life.
P.S. If getting support around any of the 12 areas of health and life is something you are looking for, I would love to serve you in that way through the Whole Woman’s Health Club, a membership community where women care for their whole health and for one another. Check it out >>HERE<<.
