Living Whole is a new column by Life and Work Coach Maggie French. In her first Column, she discusses the importance of reclaiming balance in your life and making time for 'ME'.

You can email Maggie your questions at balance@maggiefrenchcpc.com

Living Whole

by Maggie French

When I decided to write this column, Living Whole, I was perplexed about how to describe "living whole," because how one lives in balance is so personal.

I am a believer in analogies as they allow one to follow one's own path to a similar place. So, I begin with a story, a story of lake waters. In late July, my Dad wanted me to join him in a visit to the lake cottage of his youth. As day two of our visit was about to begin...

It was quiet at six that morning. The world was not quite day, yet no longer night. I opened my eyes to view the waters of the lake, still, as if the spigot of streams into this waterway had been turned off for the evening.

I took myself down to the lake's edge and stood before a mirror of sky and clouds. In this reflection, in this peacefulness, I saw balance.

Slowly this quiet began to fade. A duck landed in the reflection of the moon, sending forth ripples. The spigots of streams suddenly turned on. In a short time, the harmony was lost in the incessant movement that now was the water's surface. I pondered, was the stillness lost?

The streams that feed and leave the lake did not turn off at night; the winds and breezes did not cease. While some animals slept on shore, others slept on the water. Yet I knew this tranquility would be there tomorrow morning. So how did the lake regain its stability?

That evening as the sun was setting, I sat where I had in the morning observing the lake's calm, and pondered this question of how.

I saw the streams, the winds, and the creatures as part of the lake, what made the lake whole, and that after an evening all would, again, be still and in unity.

The evening was the lake's time to remake its calm, its flow, with all that made it whole. After a day of ripples, in this time, the lake would find its alignment with the inflows and outflows of its existence. And, with that, reclaim its serenity and mirror eternity.

Like ripples, the day-to-day stuff of life invades our living, disrupts our stillness, our symmetry. Like the streams and byways that join the lake, we too have streams and byways that are part of us, making us whole. They do not cease.

Our peace, our steadiness, is no more lost than the lake's. Like the lake, when we know the parts that make us whole and take the time to re-gather our calm, our flow, it allows serenity to return, and we can then feel our equilibrium.

Living Whole will explore, how:

• Knowing what one values makes one whole.
• To gain fulfillment in one's wants and goals.
• The vibrations of one's energy ripple and smooth.
• Slowing down allows one's balance to return.

Living Whole will share how you, like the lake, can sustain your balance, become still, and be your own reflection of eternity.

What is Your Question of Balance?

"Time, there is no time in the day for ME. There is always something to do. Where do I get the time to gain balance?" Suzie from Mashpee

Charles Bruxton said, "You will never 'find' time for anything. If you want time, you must make it." You are in control; there is no one else at the wheel.

Every minute of every day, we choose how to use the hours that are given us. Over the years the choices we make become rote. Business meetings, laundry, daycare, etc. We move into unconscious living and fill our time with to do's we are unaware of.

Just as these habitual to do's came into our living, originally as a conscious choice, so too is their leaving and the time we give to these items.

The first thing one needs to do to gain ME time is to want the time, and then to choose to include ME time into one's day. As did the to do's you now have, begin small.

Begin with five minutes early in the day before the to do's take over. FIVE MINUTES and something for yourself, i.e. read some poetry, do your nails, listen to a favorite song. Whatever, it must be something for you alone. Do this for seven days.

On the eighth day, move to ten minutes for seven days. Then on the eighth day move to fifteen minutes. Do this weekly until you have reached thirty minutes of ME time.

That's it. Enjoy the minutes.

Do you have a question on how to sustain your balance? How to live whole?

Email your questions to balance@maggiefrenchcpc.com and together let's search for an answer.

All Photographs Courtesy of Maggie French

A whole life is about finding your balance.

Living Whole Coaching's focus is to assist you in identifying what creates your stability.

What do you value?
What is your reason for being?
What do you want to accomplish?

Living Whole Coaching has individual and workshop offerings for the exploration of the answers to these and other questions that will bring harmony into your living and the means to live whole.

Your Complimentary Consultation

A Complimentary Consultation is an opportunity for a 1-to-1 personal consultation to experience the power of coaching to bring personal growth and balance to your life.

In a consultation three things happen:

• We will talk about how things are going and I will learn about you, your goals, dreams, what is working and not working for you;
• You will learn about me and how our working together will benefit you; and,
• You will experience the coaching process and gain value from the coaching.

Have you ever said…

I wish…
I want…
I can't…

Call 774 212 1826 or email Maggie to schedule a Complimentary Consultation today.

Experience the Power of Coaching

Maggie French is a certified, ICF-credentialed coach. She specializes in work/life coaching, because "If you want to makes improvements in one, there will be effects in the other."

Maggie collaborates with several organizations on the Cape including WE CAN, the Harwich Chamber of Commerce and the Cape Cod Chapter of ABWA.

Visit maggie's website: www.maggiefrenchcpc.com

You can reach Maggie at 774 212 1826
or email her at balance@maggiefrenchcpc.com