Parsons Kimberly - A Balanced Life: Align your chakras and find your best self through yoga and meditation

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Sarah Lavelle

SENIOR COMMISSIONING EDITOR: Cline Hughes

DESIGNER: Alicia House

ILLUSTRATOR: Cloudy Thurstag

HEAD OF PRODUCTION: Stephen Lang

SENIOR PRODUCTION CONTROLLER: Nikolaus Ginelli

Published in 2021 by Quadrille,

an imprint of Hardie Grant Publishing

QUADRILLE

5254 Southwark Street

London SE1 1UN

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Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Text Kimberly Parsons 2021 Design and layouts Quadrille 2021

eISBN 978 1 78713 553 6

Balance I think we often assume its something we can achieve all in a days work. Tick enough things off our to-do list and we will get it, as if its an object we can hold onto at the end of the day. Some of us treat it like a destination, enjoying the journey towards it by committing to any number of wellness lifestyle techniques and rituals. Others put their path towards balance in the hands of a yoga teacher, personal trainer, doctor, nutritionist or spiritual healer, preferring to offload the responsibility onto someone else.

While we may experience balance for a few fleeting moments, how many of us can honestly say we live a balanced life? Curating a life where balance gets to hang around as a constant participant isnt as easy as we have been led to believe. Too fleeting, too hard, and elusive in nature, balance seems to be something most of us have given up on, leaving it to monks to experience and evangelise.

Far from being a monk myself, like many people I assumed that once I had achieved certain milestones, reached a certain age, meditated for 20 minutes a day, cooked with organic seasonal produce, started a gratitude journal, bought a yoga mat, floated in a salty warm water pod and got rid of those energy vampires, I too would feel blissfully balanced; wafting through life on a fluffy cloud where none of lifes troubles could reach me. Too Zen to notice or just so damn calm and relaxed that I would approach lifes disappointments or challenges with Yoda-like skills.

While there have been some Zen-like moments and balance has not been unattainable in my life, for periods of time my ambitious, high-achieving mind-set and frantic lifestyle made it too uninhabitable for balance to move in and get cosy. In fact, at times I could even say that I created a hostile environment for it.

To some degree I thought I knew how to obtain it. Intuition was telling me the answer existed somewhere in the idea of slowing down and embracing a much simpler life, but I decided to ignore it, believing I didnt need it and I would be fine without it, despite feeling stressed, tired and overexposed most of the time.

The moment I decided to turn the boat around and head towards living a more balanced life came in the disguise of maternity leave with my first child. I stopped working every day and started to realise I wasnt going to be able to live my fast-paced lifestyle any more (and if I am completely honest, it was with a large sprinkling of relief). I gave in to the calmer seas of living in a more harmonious way. I even remember writing on my vision board I want to live a simple and balanced life as a mother. #mumgoals

Now, as I sit here and write, I am finding my way through my first year as a new mother. My journey towards granting balance access to my home has been more about doing less than my previous formula allowed, which had always been to do more. As I grappled with the unproductive, selfless and unrelenting days of motherhood, I came to realise the beautiful thing that is balance is actually there for the taking, inside all of us, just waiting to be embraced. Attaining balance happened as a result of needing to live in the present moment with my son and understanding I feel at peace when life is simple and pared back to the seven basic needs I identified and now use as a tool to find balance every day.

My passion for lifes natural cycles and rhythms led me to train as a naturopath and learn the art of treating health holistically. For 15 years, my private practice experience has revealed how the increased responsibilities of living a fast-paced life have diminished societys ability to find balance.

These seven basic needs, which I call my balance superpowers and which are discussed in detail in , are the backbone of how I live my balanced life. They can create the road map to help anyone seeking the same. It doesnt matter if you feel youve just wandered a few feet off the path, or if youre having a few off days but hoping you will feel back to normal soon enough, or if night has fallen on you too many times, leaving you so bewildered that the idea of balance seems like a long-lost relative you dont expect to ever see again. Whatever your circumstances, this book is your practical guide to help you navigate balance, maintain its presence in your life, and shake off the manic lifestyle and headspace that plague our modern lives.

This books aim is to validate the needs you face physically, mentally and spiritually. It contains something for everyone theories on the mind, body, spirit (or soul, but Ill refer to it as spirit) and chakra system for the intellectuals, mandala art for the visionaries, meditations for the ethereal, and practical tips for the motivated achievers. Hopefully it will provide solutions, with enlightened thoughts, wisdom and soulful essence you can recreate in your life.

Whether youre picking this book up for the first time or the hundredth time, I would like to offer you this moment to honour you and the life you are currently living. Give thanks and offer gratitude to where you are today. Take this opportunity to reflect and take stock of where you are, what has passed, and what may have brought you to pick up this book.

Give yourself permission to look back over the last few weeks, months or years and see just how far youve come. If youre not happy with where you are, thats okay. Be kind to yourself living up to our own expectations can often be our own undoing.

As you read these pages, try to be as honest with yourself as possible those rose-tinted glasses arent going to help you get the answers you need here. Remember, this is all about you getting to live your most authentic life in a balanced way.

Seeing life from a different perspective can be the impetus you are looking for to unlock patterns that have been hindering you from living your best life. Approach these pages with a child-like curiosity, which allows you to stay open to all concepts and thoughts for you to mull over. You never know, something may just click into place, blow your mind in the most magical way and give you the renewed energy youve been looking for.

You dont need to master everything in the Balance is list below or aim to achieve all of this all the time. Balance means slightly different things to different people, so not all these states will chime with everyone, but these are my interpretations on the balancing act; you might like to make your own list or adapt mine to suit you.