If you value your ability to multitask more than your weekends, or if you look forward to getting sick because it’s the one time you can justify turning off your BlackBerry, you should probably take a moment to examine your goals. Re-prioritizing your life so that you enjoy a more holistically healthy existence doesn’t meant that you have to give up your professional life or goals. In this list, we’ll show you how to live your life more spiritually and sanely, without sacrificing productivity or purpose.
Tips
Make it a point to try out these simple tips each day so that you’re consistently working towards a more balanced life.
- Meditate or Pray: No matter what your religion is, or even if you aren’t particularly religious, your mind and mood can benefit from a few minutes of reflection each day.
- Set up a regular sleep schedule: You’ll be ready to wake up earlier and will get the most out of your sleeping hours if you do so.
- Stop your bad habits: Besides the fact that breaking dangerous or unhealthy habits is good for your health, practicing discipline will help you be more purposeful with your other duties.
- Talk about what’s bothering you: Visit a counselor, pastor or friend to talk out your problems, ease anxiety and fell less alone.
- Take on responsibility: Whether it’s a plant, a pet, or just owning up to any mistakes you make at work, taking responsibility is good for your integrity and forces you to be there for someone or something else.
- Seek out other spiritually-minded people: Surround yourself with moral company who share the same goals as you and can be a good influence on your spiritual journey.
- Eat for Energy: Remember to refuel with healthy snacks and meals for a more energetic and productive day.
- Tune into your body: Whether it’s through yoga, regular doctor’s visits or going through a detox, take a moment each day to connect your mind and body for a holistic spiritual experience.
- Pace yourself: Set small goals for yourself and understand what you’re capable of to avoid getting overwhelmed or sidetracked during your new journey.
- Understand that there will be tough times: If you think that just making the decision to be more spiritual and purposeful means that your life is going to be perfect everyday, it’ll be too easy for you to get frustrated. Understand that your new outlook on life will help you get through the tough times, not prevent them.
Blogs to Read
Add these blogs to your RSS so that you can find inspiration and wisdom in your inbox or Google Reader each day.
- Beyond Blue: Therese J. Borchard blogs for BeliefNet on the subject of mental health and depression.
- Zen Habits: Get all kinds of life hacks, ideas for organization, and inspiring habits to start from this blog.
- My Out Spirit: My Out Spirit is a spirituality blog for the gay community and covers topics like lifestyle choices, identity and more.
- Psychology Today Blogs: Visit a specific blog or just click on a category to see all relevant posts. Categories range from addiction to relationships to self-help.
- Self Help Daily: Learn how to love yourself and do everything better when you read this blog, from relationships to health to fitness.
- For God’s Sake, Shut Up!: Brian Kaylor is an Assistant Professor in Communication Studies and aims to help Christians learn how to communicate better.
- Text Messages: Patton Dodd writes about Christianity and culture here.
- Life is a Journal: This "self help for lazy people" blog is written by Allen Galbraith, a contributer to BBC TV and radio programs. Find tips for getting inspired and making progress in your life.
- Slacker Manager: Here you can find tips for being a better partner and manager, in the business world and beyond.
- Self-Help Happiness Blog: From lists of motivational songs and TV shows to tips for managing your life more effectively, this blog is a great resource for finding a balance.
Finance and Wealth
Learn how to balance your budget without becoming too consumed with money. These tips and resources will help you keep everything organized and in perspective.
- Money Tips from Zen Achievers: Savvy Sugar shares tips for "keeping it simple" in terms of finances and stress.
- The Prioritizer: CNN Money’s calculator can help you track your financial goals.
- The Correct Way to Pay off Personal Debt: This guide has tips for avoiding the "debt avalanche" and taking responsibility for your debt.
- 10 Tips to Make Sure Your Financial Budget Will Succeed: Tips like "put your budget in writing" and "review your budget each month" will help you stay on track.
Work-Life Balance
Achieving a work-life balance is a great struggle for some, but it’s absolutely necessary if you want to have a meaningful life.
- Are you a workaholic?: This article can help you stop bad work habits before they spiral out of control.
- 5 Tips for Better Work-Life Balance: WebMD helps you figure out a 5-step plan for a mentally and physically healthy work-life balance.
- 11 Tips for Nuking Laziness without Becoming a Workaholic: This guide can show you a balance between overachieving and underachieving.
- Stop Being a Workaholic: 5 Ways to Keep it in Check: PreventDisease.com explains how being a workaholic can turn into a "futile cycle."
- Work-life balance: Ways to restore harmony and reduce stress: The Mayo Clinic’s guide explains why a work-life balance is important and how to achieve it.
- 20 Work-Life Balance Tips for the Overworked Entrepreneur: Wendy Piersall can help you re-prioritize your life so that you balance work life and your personal life.
Community Involvement
Life isn’t just about work, school and home. Branch out to meet new friends and give back to the community by following these tips.
- Volunteer: Volunteering can help you feel like you’re spending your free time in a purposeful way, and it’s a way to meet new friends.
- Take an interest in your children’s activities: Besides being a way to make sure your children are making healthy, safe decisions in their social lives, getting to know their coaches and friends is good for you, too.
- Join a spiritual community: Join a church or other spiritual group for social interaction and inspiration to continue your journey.
- Idealist.org: Log on to this website to research volunteer and mission projects in your area and around the world.
Charitable Giving
Charitable giving offers lots of fulfilling benefits, including the opportunity to learn about a new culture or community, feel good about doing something for others, and even getting a tax break.
- Charity Navigator: Research over 5,300 American charities with this tool.
- Share your services: Offer to tutor or donate your company’s free services for a needy organization or individual.
- Charity Guide: Search charities by state or country with this tool.
- Network for Good: Find charities to donate to or volunteer with through this organization.
- JustGive.org: Find charities and in-need organizations by topic here.
- Tax Deduction for Charitable Donations: There is nothing wrong with filing a charitable donation with your taxes. Learn more about it here.
Social Guides and Relationships
For tips on finding more meaning in your social life and relationships, turn to this list.
- Four Keys to a Spiritual Marriage: This article has tips for couples who want to support each other and connect with each other on a deeper level.
- Spiritual Tools for Couples: This article lists benefits of couples who go to church together, including having more friends, enjoying a lower divorce rate, and even having better sex.
- 7 Tips for Better Family Communication: Learn how to pay attention to your family members all over again when you read this guide.
- The Positive Side of Divorce: Becoming More Spiritual: If you’ve gone through a divorce and are having trouble getting on with your life, read this article for inspiration.
- Have friends: It’s easy for even naturally outgoing people to get stuck in a rut and spend too much time working or watching TV. Expand your social network by joining a fitness club or just visiting a neighbor a few times a week.
- Helping Kids Cope With Stress: If you’ve been having a stressful week or day, remember that your kids might have been too. Read this article to learn how to tune in to your kids’ stress and help them feel less anxious.
- Get a roommate: Living alone is a dream for some, but if you’re getting depressed, consider getting a roommate.
- Top 10 Ways to Connect With Your Spouse: This Christian article recommends praying together, leaving love notes, going on dates and sharing common interests.
- Why You Should Learn Tantric Sex: Tantric sex can provide a deeper, more intimate connection spiritually and physically.
- Spend more time at home: If you’re too busy with social activities, work and errands, make a point to spend more weekends or evenings at home with your family or to pay more attention to yourself.
Spiritual Development
Here are guides and tips devoted to helping you grow spiritually.
- 6 Essential Keys to Spiritual Development: Care2’s article offers daily goals to achieve inner harmony, connect with others and more.
- The Center for Spiritual Development: This website has lots of resources for anyone curious about religion, psychology and spirituality.
- Online Bible: If you’re interested in Christianity, visit this online Bible site for a searchable directory and information about marriage, finance, devotion and more.
- Search God’s Word: This website is another resource for learning about the Bible.
- Meditation for Beginners: Here you’ll find 20 tips "for quieting the mind."
- How to Meditate: 10 Important Tips: Learn how to focus and relax your breathing, eyes, posture, thoughts and more.
- Listen to a podcast: Subscribe to or download a podcast about religion and spirituality to add more meaning and inspiration to your day.
- Bible.org: Study the Bible with this online tool as a reference guide.
- Go to a lecture: Visit a special lecture series at a university or religious center to learn more about a particular ideology, religious group or lifestyle.
- Go on a retreat: Sign up for an organized retreat through a church or temple, or send yourself on an individual retreat to focus on your spiritual development.
Goal Trackers
Use these goal trackers to monitor your progress and stay inspired each day.
- Joe’s Goals: Use this tool to track anything from exercise progress to how frequently you meditate.
- Goalmigo: This fun but basic site makes it easy to set up goals, track your progress, receive reminders and alerts, and even join groups of people with the same goals as you.
- We Endure: If your goal is to run a marathon or enter a bike race, then this tracker will keep you on point.
- HealtheHuman: Set up your own health profile, keep an online diary and access a calendar and goal tracking tool.
- eLIFELIST: This nifty network helps you create a list of goals and share them with a community of committed friends and groups.
- Don’t Break the Chain: Don’t Break the Chain is a very simple online calendar that lets you mark off days you took steps to achieving your goal.
- SuperViva: Make a life list with SuperViva, which lets you record goals, to-do lists and more.
- The Daily Plate: This popular and well-organized site helps those on a mission to lose weight and be more active. You’ll get access to a food journal, fitness log and more.
- Mint: Mint is a free finance and budget tracker that helps you find out where all your money goes.
- traineo: Use traineo to track health and fitness goals, find motivation and hold yourself accountable.
Social Media
Reach out to others with similar struggles, goals or points of view through these social media sites. You’ll find a sense of community and new groups of friends that will keep you on point.
- WebMD Community: This community is for more than just health questions. Find inspiration, information and camaraderie from people going through similar health situations as you.
- 3 fat chicks on a diet: Check out this social media site for diet and fitness tips, as well as member blogs that track members’ weight loss journeys.
- Care2: Join this group to find out how you can make a difference by petitioning, joining an environmentalist group, donating to a charity and more.
- D*I*Y Planner: Join this community to come up with plans to be more healthy, organize your finances, achieve goals and pursue hobbies.
- Join a religious social media site: Sites like My Praize are family-friendly networks with chat, web mail, forums, video and more.
- Accomplish Life: This self-help community site has channels for relationships, personal growth, spirituality, depression, goal setting, and even financial help.
- Join a business networking site: Especially if you’re in charge of your personal brand or company, join a site like LinkedIn to expand your presence online.
- SparkPeople: SparkPeople is a weight-loss and healthy lifestyle network that will make you get serious about your plans to be healthy.
- Join a Christian dating site: Christian Cafe is just one dating and singles sites for Christians. You’ll meet others who share your morals and beliefs, even in the cutthroat dating world.
- Get on Digg: Social bookmarking sites like Digg are a great way for you to quickly find the news stories and lifestyle articles that you’re curious about. You can also make friends with people who are interested in the same things as you and who want to share meaningful stories.
Nature and Environment
Another way to feel more spiritual and connected to the world around you is to spend more time with nature and protect the environment. Through volunteer projects, living an organic lifestyle and understanding how your life impacts nature and other people, you can enjoy a stronger sense of yourself and your purpose.
- Grow your own food: Start an organic garden to grow your own vegetables.
- Live an organic lifestyle: Go beyond your diet and live an entirely organic lifestyle that infiltrates your beauty regime and home life too.
- Recycle: Recycling has been a hot topic for decades, and it’s still vital to preserving the earth and even saving money.
- TreeHugger: Start visiting this website to learn about eco-friendly fashion, car and transportation alternatives, technology developments, and more.
- Calculate your carbon footprint: Better understand how your life affects the planet when you calculate your carbon footprint.
- Make your own cleaning supplies: Make non-toxic cleaning supplies a staple in your home to protect the environment and your family’s health.
- Join a community garden: Community gardens provide excellent ways to meet conscientious neighbors, grow your own food and give back to the environment and community.
- Things You Should Always Buy Green: If it’s hard for you to adopt a wholly green lifestyle right away, start easy by shopping for eco-friendly versions of light bulbs, paper, paint and other simple items.
- Be green at work: Encourage your office mates to go green by sharing these tips for office and eco-friendly living.
- Opt for paperless billing: Online billing is good for the environment, cuts down on excess mail, and makes your bill paying routine more efficient.
Health and Well being
Pay attention to your mental health and physical health in order to feel more energized, productive and peaceful.
- Feng Shui to Alleviate Anxiety: Consider designing your home or rooms according to feng shui principles in order to ease anxiety and promote good energy.
- Schedule regular check ups: Visit the doctor and dentist at least once a year for preventative tests and check ups.
- Monitor your weight: Exercise and a good diet keep your weight down and boost your mood, and being overweight can be a risk factor for diseases like diabetes.
- Get sunlight: Spend a few minutes a day out in the sun for an instant mood booster and to get Vitamin D. If you’re out longer than 15 or 20 minutes when there’s a high UV index, put on sunscreen.
Tips to be More Efficient
These efficiency tips and tools will help you get more meaning and purpose out of every day.
- Make lists: Set up a long-term calendar and short to-do lists for each day to make sure you stay on track.
- Limit cell phone and Internet time: BlackBerries and the Internet can be major time savers in one regard, but they’re also a huge drain to your productivity if you let your addiction get out of control.
- E-mail smarter: This article has 99 tips for being more efficient and safe with your e-mail habits.
- Know which tools help and which ones don’t: This article has suggestions for the most productive Firefox extensions, so don’t waste your time with useless extras.
- Business Productivity: This guide has tips for being more productive at work, so that you get the most out of your work day and don’t have to worry about overtime as much.
- De-clutter your life: Remove clutter from your home, your mind and your to-do lists for a more positive, relaxed outlook on life.
- Avoid multitasking too much: Too much multitasking can leave you feeling unfocused and overwhelmed, and you won’t be able to give 100% to your projects.
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