Balance: Advice to Generic Canadian Younger Me
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Piece of Mind (British Columbia Psychological Association, Unpublished)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2015/10/13
Balance is defined as the “stability of body and mind” by the Canadian Oxford Dictionary (2nd Ed.). In a modern technological society inundated with the mental pollution of excess social media through the frivolous use of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, we come to waste time on less-than-beneficial activities, at least compared to other healthy activities. Body mass index/Quetelet index (BMI) percentages in the overweight to obese range for youth (age 12 to 17) in Canada have increased, according to self-reports from Statistics Canada, from 20.4% to 23.1% during 2011 to 2014 alone. However, this increased for adolescent males, not adolescent females. BMIs have increased from 23.5% to 28.5% for men, but have remained stable with a mild decrease from 17.2% to 16.9%.
As far as physical health might be concerned for the upcoming generation of adults, the health of young men should and will be of greater concern than young women. Both excess social media and insufficient physical exercise (and bad diet) presents two problems in need of solutions within the boundaries of “stability of body and mind.” I use these as two simple examples for the persistence of low balance. In addition, this will be a greater issue in upcoming generations, as noted by the statistics. A lot of the commentary and recommendations on balance in life will seem trite, banal, commonplace, and even passé. Even so, common sense is not so common, sometimes – as the saying goes, more or less. So here’s some advice to younger me about balance:
- Academic Balance: set the appropriate time aside dependent upon the course of study. Different courses require different times to complete the relevant tasks. Some come easier because of interest or talent. Few are born with the genius-level intelligence quotients. Fill the gap with hard work, study habits, and persistence in them. You’ll thank me later for it.
- Character Balance: an old-fashioned notion about the development of moral character in principled living defined in such terms as conscientiousness, courage, decency, fortitude, goodness, honesty, integrity, morality, and rectitude. You need to do this for yourself, community, and society; no one will hold your hand or do this for you. (If they do, they’re an angel, thank them.) Find the others with these, develop them in yourself, and success is more probable, more assured.
- Mental Balance: all other areas weave into this point because exercise, social life, and low-stress study habits benefit mental health to the utmost. Even further, back into the others, a balanced mental life can make one a good friend and confidante to others, or their partner, help them keep on their diet and exercise plan, and perform well under the obvious stress of essay writing or examinations.
- Physical Balance: keep an eye on your BMI, or at least weight, do not focus on overweight or underweight necessarily. Rather focus on the development of a daily exercise regimen to build a schedule in the day, same with a balanced diet, you will reach the appropriate BMI for your body type from this without the stress associated with focus on body image. Every day, seven days a week, year-round, do stretching, weight training, and cardio through biking or running at regular times, preferably in the early morning. Once routine, it becomes easier. Diet is connected to this because without the proper dietary intake exercise becomes hard and you can begin to lose balance. Physical balance benefits all other areas.
- Socio-Emotional Balance: Social health and emotional health are deeply intertwined with little non-overlap. Focus on social and emotional health through confiding in friends and building strong, deep social networks with family, extended family, friends, and colleagues. Your emotional health is connected to the health and wellbeing of others. We’re social creatures, act accordingly.
Balance is key. Ancient Greeks to the modern discipline of positive psychology point to the need of balance in each aspect of life, but this requires conscious, deliberate, and consistent implementation of thoughts to behaviours, to eventual life practices for the benefits to accrue, which take time. Good luck, McFly!
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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightjournal.com.
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