What Does Balance Look Like?

A Quick Change in the Car

When I entered the working world, my mother told me to always keep a change of clothes, especially shoes, in my car because you just never know--ya know? This piece of advice is clutch when I have to pivot from day to night activities, if I spill something on my outfit, or when a last-minute invite comes across my phone screen. Even just a change of shoes can be so helpful. Say you've been wearing heels all day at the office and a friend texts you about an outdoor pop up event just after your work day ends. You're more likely to go if you have a pair of cute and comfortable loafers on standby in your backseat, right? And if you routinely wear flats to the office, a pair of heels on hand means a smooth transition to that after-work event for which you might otherwise feel underdressed.

Snacks on Hand at All Times

Almonds are my snack of choice, especially on busy days when I need mid-morning or mid-afternoon fuel. When you have back-to-back meetings and squeeze in a lunch hour workout, a little pick-me-up goes a long way toward staying focused between meals. Convenient, portable, mindful options are one of my corporate health hacks and almonds check off all those requirements. This little tin easily fits in my purse, cupholder, or gym bag and holds the perfect portion of almonds. When planning my workweek meals, almonds usually find their way onto the menu, both for snacking and incorporated into easy recipes like an almond breakfast smoothie or a batch of oatmeal muffins.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I tend to use lots of food emoji. With the huge role almonds play in our diets, I was surprised to find there's not yet an almond emoji. There are avocado, taco, and egg emoji but no almond?! If you agree that this needs to change, join me in signing the petition here to help add an almond emoji to the mix.

Mix Adulting & Indulging

Each day, my to-do list has a mixture of items from my corporate job, blog work, and personal life. Since most of us wear multiple hats over the course of a day, y'all can probably relate to being busy and having to shift your focus between different types of projects and priorities. It's called the hustle for a reason! Two of the things that help me stay on track and know when to switch hats are keeping lists in my phone and penciling every kind of appointment, alert, etc. into my calendar. These are simple acts but so impactful. Everything from big events to content deadlines to reminders to ship an item goes into the calendar and any smaller task or item I might need to purchase goes into lists. But you know what else I add to my calendar? Self-care. Whether that is an alert to schedule a massage, a movie date, or quiet time set aside to read devotionals. Placing equal emphasis on the "indulgence" of me time and other forms of self-care and the more menial tasks of adulting is what balance looks like to me. It's rarely an even split but that doesn't stop the show! Don't let taking care of business preclude taking care of you. In the midst of paying bills and launching your dreams, be sure to take your vitamins, drink water, feed your mind, and eat well. Almonds help with the latter with good fats, fiber & protein, and providing an excellent source of vitamin E, manganese, and magnesium!

I hope this is helpful to you in the seemingly perpetual pursuit of balance. Now it's your turn to share--what does balance look like for you? Thank you for reading.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of California Almonds.