Thoughts and feelings (4)

When your mind gets overloaded with too much information or stimulation, what do you do to regain your balance?

Piece of cake

Is your job too easy, too difficult, or just about right?  If an easier job and a harder job were offered to you (at the same salary), what would you choose? 

What task is fun and easy for you, even though many other people would find it challenging or unpleasant? 

This week's theme is hard at work.

Balance of love (part 2)

There are some things you love but you just can't have, at least not right now.  They're out of your budget, out of reach, impractical, impossible.  And there are things that you love that are in your life right now — in your community, among your possessions, part of your routine.  If you could put those two categories on an imaginary love scale, which side would tip the balance: the stuff that's "already here," or the stuff that's "out there"?

This week's theme is the things you love.

Balance of love (part 1)

Think of all the things in your life. There are things that you love, things that move your heart in some way.  There are also some things that you dislike, and some things that are just there.  Within this whole picture, how much space is occupied by love? What proportion of your time, space, and attention is taken up with things that you love?

This week's theme is the things you love.

Always in a hurry

What things in your life are almost always rushed? What are the things that you have to do at an uncomfortably fast pace?

When you have a chance to slow things down a little, what difference do you see? What benefits do you get from a slightly slower pace?

This week's theme is fast and slow.

Fast and slow

In music, you can ruin the beauty of a piece just by playing it too slow or too fast. The same principle applies in ordinary life: our day suffers when we try to move ahead at the wrong tempo. How does the pace of your life feel right now: is it about right, too fast, or too slow?

This week's theme is fast and slow.

Keeping things in sync

Every four years (with a few exceptions) our calendar has to make an adjustment to stay in sync with the sun. Specifically, an extra day — Leap Day — is inserted as February 29. What is one thing in your life that needs a little adjustment from time to time so that everything stays lined up appropriately?

This week's theme is Leap Day.

Taking your temperature

On the whole, do you think you are too complacent (sticking with what's comfortable and familiar too often), or too unsettled (challenged by too many changes at once)?

92 throw pillows

A friend realized he had enough mugs to serve hot cocoa to fifty people, but that not that many people could fit in his house. What is one thing that you are similarly oversupplied with, that you have in far greater quantity than you could conceivably use?

This week's theme is clutter.

Thermostat

Natural systems have ways of keeping themselves in balance. For example, your body sweats or shivers when necessary to keep a stable temperature. What are some things that you do almost as automatically — without having to think about it or make a decision — to help pull your life into balance when something has gotten out of balance?

This week's theme is balance.

Opposites attract -- or repel

According to some theories of personality, if you meet someone whose personality is exactly opposite your own, you're likely to feel strongly about them — you'll either love them or hate them. Among the people you know, who seems to be closest to the opposite of you? And how do you feel about that person?

This week's theme is balance.

Out of proportion

What one thing in your life is conspicuously out of balance, in that it takes far more than its appropriate share of your time, money, or attention?

This week's theme is balance.

You gotta pick one or the other

Sometimes people (and commercials) incorrectly present things as opposing forces that require compromise, when they aren't really opposites at all. For example: "You have to balance style with savings" falsely implies that personal style is mainly a matter of spending money.

What are two things in your life that you used to believe were opposites, but which you now find you can reconcile without short-changing either one?

This week's theme is balance.

Balance

Yesterday's spring equinox (or fall equinox in the southern hemisphere) is the time when the sun shines straight down at the equator, leaning neither to the north nor the south. What is something in your life that went from one extreme to the opposite extreme, and is now (at least momentarily) in a place of balance?

This week's theme is balance.