LIFE PIE – Create Balance in Life by Seeing Where your Energy is Spent
The Life Pie exercise is a good indicator of where our time and energy are spent so we can make informed decisions that will bring more balance into our lives.
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My time and my energy are valuable. I want to live the most balanced life possible, giving my time and energy to the areas that are the most important to me.
My intention is
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Today I am grateful for
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If you did the Winter Journal Journey with us you may remember doing the Life Pie. A tutorial is available if you need a refresher or if you haven't done one before.
A Life Pie is a good indicator of where your time and energy is spent. We can use this information to continue gathering our data about who we believe ourselves to be. We can also use our life pie to make decisions that will bring our lives into a state of balance.
Before you begin your Life Pie …
Sit with yourself for a moment. Clear your mind and bring yourself into this moment. For a short time, focus on your breath. Breathe in to a count of 4-Breathe out to the count of 4. Do this 4 times with the intention of connecting yourself into your heart and your body.
A Life Pie Tutorial
We use these Life Pies to determine the state of balance in our lives at this moment. This exercise requires an honest, non-judgmental assessment of where your focus is most of the time at this stage of your growth. If you do this exercise once every other week or so, you can track your state of balance, notice which areas may need to be shifted, and note the difference that any shift of the segments have on your reality.
It is very important that you are intentional and honest about your percentages. Watch out for trickery (The Judge and the Ego like a good trick). For instance: One of the segments is Friends/Social Connection-If you gather with a group and spend much of that time on your phone or scrolling Facebook, that is trickery and not actually Social Connection. Same idea if you eat dinner with your family but you are all focused on a device or you spend the meal distracted by something that happened at work. That is not part of the Family/Home percentage. These situations are where honesty and intent come into play.
This exercise is information only. We don't need to be “fixed”. It was not designed to cause guilt, shame, or judgment. Do not let this be something you beat yourself up over. To make the changes we may need to make, it helps to have well-thought-out information and that is the intent of this practice.
The complete circle is 100%. Using the list, determine how much focus and energy in your allotted amount of time goes into each segment. Save your eraser by writing the percentages next to the corresponding words and then transfer to your circle.
- Home
- Family
- Self/Personal Growth-meditation, journaling, mindfulness, time in nature
- Creative Practice
- Work/Career
- Money/Financials
- Learning/Education
- Spirituality/Faith
- Friends/Social Connections
- Physical Health-exercise, wholesome food, water, stress reduction, rest when you are depleted
- Play/Entertainment
- Escape-device, substance, television, gambling, shopping
- Service/Helping Others
- Relationships/Romance
Of course, if you have other areas that regularly use your time and energy add them to the list. This is your life pie and needs to be relevant to your life.
Using something round approximately 4 1/2-6 inches in diameter, make a circle in your Creativity Journal. Think carefully about these segments, be intentional. Try to identify how your energy is actually spent. For instance: Money is a real and constant focus for a lot of us. Do I have enough? How could I make more? Can I pay my bills or repair my car? Many people have a job that does not feed their soul but does pay their bills. Their focus is primarily on Money. If you find purpose and fulfillment in your job and/or the people you work with and gain satisfaction from your work and enjoy being there, your focus is mostly on Work/Career. Do you see the distinction? Again, no judgment…just an honest observation.
This practice can be an eye-opening experience.
Have fun with it, color code it, use it for greater awareness.
Once you have created your Life Pie, ask yourself these questions:
- What are my observations after creating my Life Pie?
- What areas are my current priorities in my life?
- What areas do I want to be priorities in my life?
- What actions can I take to achieve this?
Read the following affirmation with purpose and intent:
I am creating a balanced and harmonious life.
Please take a moment to pause and reflect on where your time and energy is going in the Activity Feed.
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Join us in the Intention Inspired Art Room for our community creative journaling.
