As you are prioritizing your schedule, thinking of your needs, pacing yourself, and getting support, would you say you are living a balanced life? There are many ways to view balance.

Balance implies that you are spending the appropriate amount of time on any given thing. Is your work life balanced with your home life? If it is out of balance, you may be working overtime frequently and as a result aren't home enough with your family.

Some people mistakenly believe balance means that you have a lot of free time. On the contrary, your days can be very full, but you can still feel in control.

When you feel in control of your life despite chronic illness, and when you have accepted that arthritis is part of your new reality, you have reached a state of balance. With that sense of balance, you will continue to make good decisions. You will become very good at knowing when to take a break, get support, ask for help, or readjust your priorities.

Example of an Unbalanced Life

If balance begins to slip away, it's important to recognize the signs so you can adjust quickly and get back on the right track. Life may be becoming unbalanced if you find yourself saying or thinking:

• I'm spending too much time at work.

• I haven't seen my friends in a long time.

• I'm long overdue for a vacation.

• Every minute is scheduled and I have no time for myself.

• I feel stressed and tired much of the time.

• I don't have time to breathe.

• A lot of people depend on me.

• I have missed many special events with family and friends.

• I've lost control of my time.

• All I do is go to the doctor.

Bring Your Life Back into Balance

If you don't feel in control of your time, you won't feel in control of your life. Intellectually, you know how to live a balanced life. Chaos can disrupt your intended plans for keeping life balanced, though.

If and when it happens that you feel unbalanced and out of control, go back to basics. Revert to what you know works for you.

How you are feeling physically correlates with living a balanced life. If you are not living a balanced life, you will feel more pain, fatigue, and stress, and other physical measures will be out of line. Do what it takes to regain control of your life.

There's More to Life than Medical Problems

It can be easy to fall into the trap of becoming consumed by illness and the desire to get well. Having a chronic disease means you are living with it every day and every night. You wake up thinking about it and you go to bed thinking about it. You think about arthritis many times during the day, even when doing other tasks or activities. You talk about arthritis with your doctor, with your support group, and with your family and friends. It can consume your thoughts if you let it.

If you do let arthritis consume your thinking, that contributes to a life out of balance. There is more to life than medical problems. Make sure you give equal time to thinking about current events or such things as how to make someone happy or what you can do for a friend.