by Ronnee Ruselle

What does it mean to lose balance within yourself? Well, it could mean that you are trying so hard to please the people around you that you lose yourself in the process. It could mean that you are so often told what to do, what to think and what to say that you become disconnected with who you are and become what others say you should be.

Sometimes we end up thinking and doing what we see others around us think and do or what we are told to. It could be some small belief or behaviour that is making you feel out of touch with yourself. Below you will find some actions and views that can help you explore areas of yourself and your life you may not have considered in order to reconnect with yourself.

How to find balance

Listen within. Listen to your conscience. This is where you will find your belief system. Our ethics and our belief of 'what is right' are our foundations as individuals. When we explore our ethics and our morals and we then live by those, we feel balance. This will help you to live a life where you can live by what you believe in, removing doubt and guilt.

Listening within yourself is not difficult. It simply means that you need to stop and be quiet for a while. Let your mind wander over situations around you. Like a computer, it will run through data such as your thoughts, feelings, memories and beliefs. Take out a little time each day to think about a situation around you and ask yourself what you feel and believe about this situation. Ask yourself where you got this belief from? Is it your belief or one you've just picked up along the way from other people? A good example of this is political views. A lot of people vote for the same party their family voted for simply for that reason. When they look closer at the agendas of each party, they may discover that their beliefs fall in line with a different political party.

I once knew a guy who treated people around him in a rude, sarcastic way simply because his friends did. He grew more and more irritated and angry at the world, but upon reflection he asked himself if this was how he believed he should be and realized that it was his own behaviour that made him angry, not the people around him. By changing his behaviours, he soon felt more at peace because he treated people in line with what he felt was right. He also had many more friends.

Over time, you will discover whether those beliefs etc. are truly yours or ones you have adopted out of habit or from other people. By listening within, we not only learn who we truly are, but we will feel more secure with our place in the world and within ourselves. This is how we deal with pain and this is how we learn about ourselves. Our lives are so busy running here and there that we don't get time to learn about ourselves truly.

This can be achieved by understanding and respecting what you could possibly call the rules of nature. The following are some guidelines that can help you live a guilt-free life.

• Nobody has the right to inflict pain upon another.
• Every living thing is equal and entitled to respect.
• If you are tempted to do something that you may feel guilty about later - don't do it.
• Be true to yourself.
• Don't give at a sacrifice to yourself. This does not mean that you should not help somebody. It means that if you will have to make a sacrifice in order to so, then this could be life's way of telling you that you should not be doing it.
• Life will never give you a situation that you cannot handle.
• Always choose the 'right' direction or answer over the 'easy'.
• Listen.

Listening to Nature

Then when you have achieved that, listen to nature. Stop and take time to sit in your garden or in some place of nature and 'feel' what is around you. Listen to what nature tells you. Does it need your help? What animals are in your garden? What can you do to help nature along and attract even more of nature and its' beauty to your location? You may find that you get some great ideas about plants and designs you would like to use in your garden to make it somewhere you can enjoy.

Other areas of nature have a wonderful energy to them that you could enjoy by sitting quietly. Hearing the birdsong, watching the insects and other creatures and feeling one with nature is very good for rebalancing yourself.

Accepting Differences

This is a world full of variety and we admire all the wonderful species of flora and fauna we have on the planet for their beauty or their individual capabilities; so it is interesting that we are intolerant of difference within our own species.

If we were proud of our differences whilst accepting them in others, we would soon see that we are meant to be different and that it is necessary for balance in the world. We can't be clones and one of the great things about us is that we all think differently. This is where our ideas, new creations and theories come from. This is how we grow as individuals and as a race.

We don't have to agree with others, but they deserve the right to believe what they wish without our condemnation and so do we as individuals. As a race of beings, more and more of us are accepting our differences. In time it will be accepted that being different is normal and isn't this just truth? Some people reading this may think that it is already normal to be different, but segregation, racism, sexism and other types of discrimination still exist simply because people are different to others.

For you, accepting that you are different in some ways and understanding that this is okay can help you find inner balance. Many people live with quiet condemnation by friends, family and society because of some difference such as type of job, lifestyle, how rich a person is, beliefs or otherwise. A common example is the size or shape of people. It is still a big topic for discussion within the media about people's size and what is normal. All sizes are normal. We are not all meant to be the same size and cannot be no matter how hard we try. Accept your individual differences as your own recipe for success. You are who you are for a reason, in order to help you achieve something in this lifetime. Embrace it. Use it to help you do good things and to have a good life. If you need to improve some things, do them but never be ashamed of your differences.

Achieving Inner Peace, Wisdom & Direction

The world shows signs that it's time for us to move onto the next stage of evolution. We do this by listening and acting. Start by listening within and learning about yourself, learning to love yourself and be proud of yourself, learning to take care of yourself and ensuring that others respect and take care of you as well.

Then move outside of yourself and listen to the world around you. Listen to your family, friends, associates. What do they need? What can you do to help them, to heal them whilst ensuring that you remain true to the person you have discovered by going within? Then see what the elders and wise ones have to say and listen to the planet. Hear what the weather and earth changes tell you and somewhere within all of this you will see your path. You will feel secure in your place and your world knowing what you have to do in order to have peace and beauty in your life and to restore balance.