Three Steps to Balancing Your Inner Life

My outer world has been busy lately.

New grandson. New college class. New ladies' group. New children's music classes. New puppy. New year of volunteering.

The last few weeks have passed in a blur, with little time for reflection.

For stillness. For stepping into my inner world.

And closing the door.

I told the professor in a writing class I started in August, "I don't know about doing this class this semester. My outer world is so busy that I don't know if I have time to spend on an inner world."

"Or maybe, " he countered, "that's the reason you need to do it."

Inner worlds.

Let's be honest, even if you are not a writer, there is an inner world that needs your attention and care. For each of us, the demands of the outer world threaten to consume our inner life. That inner place of reflection. Meditation. Stillness.

It is a constant challenge for me.

In the book, Ordering Your Private World by Gordon McDonald, he writes that he found that his spiritual disciplines often got put aside because "they never screamed out immediately when ignored." Until he learned to budget his time, non-essentials always filled his calendar before important priorities. He found "the important functions that will make the supreme difference in our effectiveness miss getting into the calendar until it is too late."

These three steps have helped me live a more balanced life.

Three Steps To Balancing Your Inner World

1. Schedule Daily Time.

I put time for reflection on my Daytimer. I treat it as important (or more important) than other commitments and appointments. Sometimes I read a book. I study the Bible. I write in my journal. I sit in silence. Currently I have added memorizing sections of scripture to my routine. When I find myself getting bored, I try something new.

2. Schedule Monthly Time.

Several times a month I leave the electronic world behind and go for a hike. Sometimes I go with my husband and sometimes I go alone. Getting outside is a way for me to recharge my batteries. Find what works for you and schedule it.

Note: I have found I NEVER have nothing to do on the mornings I get away. There are ALWAYS things clamoring for my attention.

3. Schedule a Yearly Retreat.

Once a year I go with a group of women for a spiritual retreat. I come home feeling connected with others and feeling closer to God. Over the years I have found it invaluable to maintaining order in my inner life. In the book Wild Goose Chase, Mark Batterson writes that retreats are "powerful catalysts in our lives...They get us out of our routines and help us see God with new eyes."

Batterson concludes: Change of place + Change of pace = Change of perspective.

So I'm curious, how do you balance your inner world?