“Balance is not something you find, it's something you create.” - Jana Kingsford

Let's talk about balance.

It's something that many want and yet feel like it evades them.

In nutrition school they taught us about the "wellness wheel". I love it. I use it often a a guide not just with clients throughout the year, but also as a guide for me around new years time to check-in on what is going well, but also what needs attention.

But in one of my graduate school courses, I heard Dr. Lissa Rankin talk about a new model - the Whole Health Carin (image below).

For those that don't know, a carin is one of those gorgeous clusters of rocks balancing on each other. Dr. Rankin's model was all about "balance", but it doesn't look like many of if think it does. It's not a pyramid or wheel with nice even levels or sections. It's a puzzle of "rocks" all different sizes and shapes.

The reason I fell in love with this model, is that I think of reasons balance evades many of us, is that we are looking externally for balance, or what balance looks like for others we deem "have it all together".

I have been told many times that I seem to be one of those people that has it all together. If you are my mom (hi mom) or someone that knows we well, you know I definitely DO NOT have it all together. It's my virgo-ness that often makes it appear that way. And that’s ok.

If you look carefully, you will see that "physical health", the area we all see to focus the most on, and even includes nutrition, is all the way at the top in this model. Take some time to really think about this and evaluate for you how this fits into your life?

The Whole Health Carin model shows us that balance is something we can all achieve in different ways!

Also, sometimes I find it helpful to turn things upside down in order to see things from a different perspective. What do you think?

Maybe this week you take some time to print this Carin out and color in or rank what is going well, ok, and might need more attention on this. You might be surprised.