When we talk about balance, we often forget to extend that balance to our healing journey.

The truth is that you still need time off when you are deeply focused on self-improvement. We can’t do anything in life one hundred percent all of the time. I think that we actually heal more quickly in the space we take to integrate the work we’ve done. Why are we doing the work if we aren’t integrating? There’s nowhere for it to go to settle in if we don’t.

The work is never-ending, but we don’t have to keep a laser focus on it all of the time. If we do, we won’t be able to continue on with it. Like anything else, we need periods of rest and recovery in order to sustain an extended commitment. I have found in my own journey that if I’m intensely focused in on whatever healing work I happen to be doing at the time, it feels incredibly nurturing to take periods of rest and recovery where I do nothing but bring myself into presence and mindfulness. That’s why I’m doing the work – to be here now. Not to have such tunnel vision on healing that it’s actually taking me out of the life I’m living.

We can get just as unhealthily wrapped up in the healing as in the numbing. Our lives are here to be lived, loved, and fully enjoyed – not spent with our gaze in the past or the future. Much of the work that we do – meditation, yoga, breath work, writing, whatever it may be for you – is meant to be applied in the little moments between. It’s a gradual journey. You don’t have to have some momentous, lightning-flash kind of transformation in order to be on a transformational path. It’s all about self-love, self-compassion, and a good deal of patience with the process.

So do the work, yes, but also allow yourself some space when you feel overwhelmed. You can’t do anything productive when you feel paralyzed. Balance is key in all areas of life, even your inner work. Give yourself a break. Breathe. Let it settle into your body. Allowing for true rest is essential to your journey.

You are safe to take breaks on your healing journey. It’s a lifelong thing, so what’s the rush? You have all the time in the world. Don’t make it into yet one more part of your world that you end up dreading. Try to make the process something you can enjoy as much as you do the end results.

You’ve got this. You’re strong and you are capable of balancing your life. Sending love.