Maintaining a healthy work-life balance can help reduce stress, give us a sense of stability, steadiness and improved wellness. Having a balance of everything is essential for equilibrium, like the Yin and Yang. When our attention and focus is drawn to one thing over then another, it creates inequality and imbalances in our lives. Here’s how to maintain a healthy equilibrium, especially as many of us are moving toward working from home as our new norm.

  • Prioritise your time – set your working time and be disciplined to adhere to the working hours. If you have a 9-5 worker, be sure to stick to your schedule. Once, outside this time, you have to ensure that you do not go back to deal with any work issues. Outside your work time, be sure to have fun doing anything that brings you joy and laughter.

  • Notice where your attention goes, your energy follows – check your inner world. You might not be working outside your working hours, but you might find it difficult to ‘shut off’. If your attention is still in work, then you will energetically have an emotional response to this.
  • Setting your boundaries – create a separateness between your workspace and the home life. If you don’t have a home office, you might be working on the dining table. When you finish your workday, pack away your office equipment and have clear and separate boundaries between the two activities. You need to have personal and relaxing time outside the work hours.

  • Have some flexibility with your time boundary – even though you set yourself a working timetable, maintain a flexible approach to your working pattern. Try not to be too hard on yourself if you have to respond to some urgent personal issues. If you need to work later one day, don’t beat yourself up.
  • Be mindful of your schedule – the mindfulness act helps bring awareness to consciousness. It gives us a realisation of our habitual behaviour patterns.
  • Keep a healthy mental perception – positive thinking helps improve our wellbeing. A healthy mental perception might include a positive outlook, helpful inner dialogue and having self-compassion when your workload tipped unfavourably.

  • Find your rhythm – find your balance and explore what works and what doesn’t. You might decide to attend an exercise class one day during the week, but it means finishing half an hour earlier that day. Find another day that you can sacrifice working half an hour later. Keep the momentum going. When you find that happy balance, keep going and do more of it.
  • Take regular breaks, take some time off – be sure to take regular breaks and lunch in your working day. We forget to take time out during the working hours when we’re at home. We may become self-conscious of our productivity. We may be fearful when working from home. Don’t feel guilty about breaks or rest. Don’t feel bad if you need to pop down to the shop to get lunch. Do take some time off even though you work from home. You do need the time away from the pressure of work.

“The secret to wellness is having a healthy balance in your life.”