I truly believe that my faith family and fitness are the thr
ee elements in my life that keep me balanced. I find when I seriously neglect one area the other two are negatively affected as well.
When I mention faith it goes beyond religion, but my spiritual well-being. A healthy spiritual relationship and practice of that relationship shape how I encounter others inside and outside my faith community.
Fitness is more than achieving a goal number on a scale or on the barbell. To me, it is about disciplining myself and taking care of the body that I am blessed with. The family is important because this is where we first put faith into practice and for me can be where fitness and spirituality can often be most challenging to balance.
I want to do a series reflecting on people in my life that I admire and how they strive to achieve a faith life balance. The easiest thing for me to do is put God in the center because everything s I do ultimately work for His will. If I mess up in any area but have done my best I can be happy.
I have never been one to compartmentalize my life well. I integrate the things most important to me with each other for better or worse. I prefer to be my fullest truest self. I pray at work and discuss my fitness goals and struggles with my family and friends. I share lessons of faith with teammates and often include them in my family prayers. The balance has no formula. I am far from being balanced at all. But I think the more I strive to attain it the closer I feel to God and the more at peace I am with my hectic life.
I hope you gain insights from the people featured. We all have different lives. Our ideas of what faith life balance looks like differ and the path to achieving it differs for each individual as well.