May 6, 2010

Can Chaos Be a Blessing?

Photo by nickwheeleroz
This morning, I read this post on the Wall Street Journal's blog, The Juggle, which is dedicated to stories and information about balancing life's various roles. (I highly recommend the site, by the way, and often find motivation and entertainment in the posts there). The title of today's post, "Living a Full Life by Embracing the Chaos," is what caught my attention. After all, doesn't that idea sum up my own approach to work-life balance and the goal of finding balance for myself?

We all know that trying to find a sense of balance in the chaos of life can be a struggle. I'm sure we can all relate to The Juggle author's rendition of her own chaos which involves childcare, a job with hard deadlines, travel, a marriage, and a menagerie of other responsibilities. Yet, the idea of choosing to embrace the fact that all of those responsibilities may clash and conflict with one another is new to many of us.

I often hear friends and acquaintances describing their life situations from a negative perspective, and admit that I do it myself too:


"I am overwhelmed at work."
"I just don't know how to make more time for my kids and family."
"Down-time for myself? That must be a joke!"


It is easy to focus on the feelings of anxiety or sadness we feel when life seems out of control because those are the feelings that often most present. However, if we choose – actively make a choice – to look at and think about our lives from a different perspective, doing so can make a world of difference in how we feel.

The Juggle author described what some might perceive to have been a day or two from hell – all of her well-laid plans went out the window and unexpected challenges presented themselves from the left and right. I can imagine myself feeling overwhelmed in such a situation, and when thinking about it or describing it to someone else, honing in on all that went wrong. But as she described, her own perspective was a bit different. Rather than feeling defeated by the chaos, she looked at all that she had on her plate and realized that having all of those things meant she was living a "full life." The fact that she could have so much chaos in her life meant that she had a lot of blessings to be thankful for.

I wonder if we all could take a lesson from her experience and perspective? And maybe make a conscious choice to look at our own chaos from another angle: focusing on the fact that all of our life roles, responsibilities, and blessings are what cause the chaos to happen sometimes? It sure seems like it could make difference in our experiences, and make us focus more on gratitude and less on struggle.

How might you try to incorporate this idea today?

No comments:

Post a Comment