How to Live a Balanced Lifestyle as a Small Business Owner and Mom of Littles

What Is “Living a Balanced Lifestyle”?

Living a balanced lifestyle is something discussed often and seen highlighted on our social media pages. But, what does the word “balanced” even mean anymore? I often feel that the word balanced is overused and misused, especially in the sense of the phrase “work-life balance”. We all juggle a lot of daily responsibilities and quickly start to feel the weight of mental burnout when we “try to do it all” all at once. For me, finding balance between being a small business owner and being a mom has been more of a challenge than I could have ever imagined. Today, I am going to share with you 6 ways in how I try to live a balanced lifestyle as a small business owner and mom.

How to Successfully Start Living a Balanced Lifestyle

When we try to implement balance in every area of our life at once, we quickly feel a sense of overwhelm. Overwhelm can then turn into not knowing where to start first, and this often results in taking no action at all. You may feel pressure to find a balanced lifestyle in all areas of your life all at once, and I’m telling you, don’t do this! Instead, take it slow.

To begin living a balanced life, it is important to focus on balancing one area of your life at a time to build routine and consistency before moving onto your next area of focus. Small changes add up over time, and when you feel you have established a consistent routine that no longer requires effort to keep up with, it has now become a habit. Once you have mastered balancing your first area as a lifestyle habit, then it is time to try and find balance in the second area of your life you wish to change.

Living a Balanced Lifestyle Means Something Different for Everyone

Everyone has a different meaning of what it is to live a balanced lifestyle. The aspects in my life that I wish to find balance in may be different than the areas of your life you wish to find balance in. Examples of areas in a person’s life that may need balance are things like eating healthy weeknight dinners, taking time for self-care, or working on physical health – which for me means keeping my Pilates body in check!

6 Ways to Live a Balanced Life as a Small Business Owner and Mom of Littles

Even though living a balanced lifestyle means something different for everyone, most of us are striving to achieve a balanced lifestyle every day. As a small business owner and mom, I can definitely say I am still trying to find balance in my life for me, my business, and my family. I am going to highlight 6 areas of my life I personally strive to live a balanced lifestyle in. I want to be the best mom and business owner I can be, so focusing on balancing these 6 areas of my life helps me to avoid feeling overwhelmed and burnt out. I hope they can help you to feel the same!

Routine How to Live a Balanced Lifestyle as a Small Business Owner and Mom of Littles Pilates Body Healthy Weeknight Dinner PILATESBODY by Kayla pilates studio

Life Area 1: Routine

Having a very “Type A” personality, I strive off of having a routine, and therefore, so does my entire family. When you are a mom with a newborn, there is no real routine at first and this makes living a balanced lifestyle incredibly difficult. However, with a newborn, the area of routine would be my number one focus to try and balance. Once we establish a fairly consistent routine as a family, it becomes almost effortless to go about our day and daily tasks. Our family’s routine eventually becomes so flawless, where I am able to say one word such as “bedtime” and my toddler runs to the bathroom to begin brushing her teeth and get dressed in her pajamas. Having an established routine gives us enough consistency in our lives to allow focusing on a new area of life to find balance in as a family.

However, if you do not have a “Type A” personality and don’t thrive off having a routine, I would not recommend establishing a routine as your first area to find balance in. Instead, choose a different area in your life that you feel brings the most stress or chaos. Or, start with an area in your life that once balanced will help iron out other areas in your life – getting you closer to that complete balanced lifestyle.

Other practices that will help you to find balance in your routine:

Wake up at the same time during the week and make your bed
Set a specific day of the week and time to go on a walk
Read before bed instead of browsing on your phone or watching tv

Physical Health How to Live a Balanced Lifestyle as a Small Business Owner and Mom of Littles Pilates Body Healthy Weeknight Dinner PILATESBODY by Kayla pilates studio1

Life Area 2: Physical Health

Taking care of our bodies can significantly contribute towards living that overall balanced lifestyle we are striving for. When we take care of our bodies properly, our bodies function at a higher level and give us more energy. In return, this allows us to focus more on the areas of our life we want to find balance in! And not to mention, allow us to grow our businesses and be the best moms we can be.

Physical health goals will look different for every person. Personally, I used to feel like I needed to dabble into everything to improve my physical health – yoga, barre, CrossFit, Pilates, SUP, triathlons – you name it. As much as I enjoyed working on my physical health with all of those many avenues, I never felt a balanced lifestyle in my physical health because I was so inconsistent in all forms of exercise. It wasn’t until I started PILATESBODY by Kayla that I really was able to focus on building a true Pilates body and see strides of balance in the physical health area of my life.

What does building a true “Pilates body” mean? I wanted every one of my workouts to be Pilates-based. There is such a variety of equipment you can use while performing Pilates workouts. One day, I focused on strengthening my Pilates body legs with booty bands. The next day, I focused on toning my Pilates body arms with a Pilates circle. The day after that, I focused on building up my Pilates body with cardio and strength by using 3lb. weights. I rotated my Pilates-based workouts until I established a solid routine and felt I was consistently working on every area of my body – achieving a well-rounded, toned, and strong Pilates body.

Other practices that will help you to find balance in your physical health:

Practicing yoga
Drinking plenty of water
Getting 7-8 hours of quality sleep every night
Resting on days you feel you need rest

Mental Health How to Live a Balanced Lifestyle as a Small Business Owner and Mom of Littles Pilates Body Healthy Weeknight Dinner PILATESBODY by Kayla pilates studio1

Life Area 3: Mental Health

Mental health starts with a healthy and positive mindset. As a small business owner and mom to littles, it can be pure chaos mentally to try and keep track of everything. Therefore, it is very important to develop clarity and confidence in your work life and motherhood. Mental health is probably one of the toughest life areas to find a complete balanced lifestyle in. The ability to grow and learn new skills takes time, and it requires a lot of mental focus to be able to think clearly and creatively around the clock.

I started focusing more on the life area of mental health in the mornings. I started with setting a routine of getting up out of bed before everyone else in the house wakes up. It brought a sense of calm to me mentally, and gave me the ability and space to focus without others around. I then began the mornings with gratitude, mantras, affirmations, and planning. I personally like to use a gratitude and mantra journal to help guide me in my mental health. This is an area that is tough for me to think creatively, and having help in and with direction keeps me consistent and focused.

Other activities that will help you find balance in your mental health:

Meditation
Reading or journaling
Learning something new that challenges your mind
Taking a break from social media

Planning How to Live a Balanced Lifestyle as a Small Business Owner and Mom of Littles Pilates Body Healthy Weeknight Dinner PILATESBODY by Kayla pilates studio

Life Area 4: Planning

Planning often goes hand in hand with routine. However, I want to focus on the small business side of things here. As a small business owner, there are so many tasks, responsibilities and decisions to juggle – between scheduling clients, social media, marketing, finances, the list goes on and on. Every day, I feel pulled in so many directions all at once and I notice my wheels are often spinning and go nowhere when I don’t have a plan, or schedule, set in place.

I recently started working with Julie Wezlick of PW Planners. Julie started PW Planners after she made her own custom and personalized planner and realized she wasn’t alone in the struggle of always trying to fit her life into a planner. Through PW Planners, Julie now helps other women create custom planners unique to their needs and small businesses.

When asked about having a balanced lifestyle using “planning”, Julie Wezlick says, “Planning lets me set intentions each week and put the focus on what’s important. By implementing time management and organizational practices, like brain dumping and planning my top 3, I can reduce the overwhelm and focus on my personal priorities while running a side hustle, momming, and working a corporate job.”

Julie has helped me organize my life through my custom PW Planner with sections devoted to goal tracking, time blocking, meal planning, social media, to-do’s, monthly reflection, and more. My custom planner by PW Planners has saved my sanity more times than I can count!

Other activities that will help you find balance in your planning:

Use a To-Do List App or Reminder App on your cell phone to keep track of tasks and responsibilities
Implement a shared family calendar in your home, or electronically with a tool like Google Calendar
Use a chalkboard or whiteboard in your home to create a weekly schedule to organize and plan out meals, chores, activities, etc.

Life Area 5: Healthy Eating

When it comes to nutrition, I think I can speak for most when I say it is an area of constant struggle in which to find a balanced lifestyle. There are so many temptations that pull us into not eating healthy weeknight dinners and instead ordering takeout. I find my family doing this more than I’d like to admit. Sometimes it is a decision made out of convenience, and sometimes it is simply because I don’t have all of the ingredients on hand to make that healthy weeknight dinner. Healthy eating is an area that, again, requires planning. So, if you’re already struggling with the area of planning in your life, start there until you find an established, effortless routine.

I feel I have the most balanced lifestyle of healthy eating when I prepare healthy weeknight dinners on Sunday for the whole week. On Sunday night, I take 30-45 minutes to find 3-5 recipes, check what ingredients we have on hand, and what ingredients I find we don’t have I add to the grocery list. I found the most balanced lifestyle in healthy eating when I finally gave up the task of going to the grocery store to shop in person. Instead, I now order all my groceries online for pick-up or delivery. Doing this saves me so much time and gives me more flexibility in my days to focus on other tasks or activities. Ordering my groceries online for pick-up or delivery also saves me money because I am not impulse buying food items, which makes me stick to my healthy weeknight dinner plans.

Other tasks that will help you find balance in healthy eating:

Prepare fruits and veggies for the week by washing and cutting them on Sunday night
Pre-make meals that just need to be heated up, saving you time and stress
Double or triple recipes to have as leftovers or for a freezer meal later
Drink more smoothies

Self Care How to Live a Balanced Lifestyle as a Small Business Owner and Mom of Littles Pilates Body Healthy Weeknight Dinner PILATESBODY by Kayla pilates studio

Life Area 6: Self-Care

Who doesn’t love a relaxing massage or a pedicure? Self-care usually means slowing down, not thinking about our to-do list, and escaping reality for short periods of time. Ultimately, self-care helps us feel energized and gives us a little bit of a reset – which in return helps us to live a balanced lifestyle. However, as a mother, self-care often comes with a side of mom guilt which can make us feel the complete opposite of balanced. For me personally, I need self-care to be a better mom. Since I struggle with mom guilt while planning time for my self-care, I make an effort to schedule my self-care activities around nap time or while they are at daycare. I understand scheduling around these times may not be applicable if you are a stay at home mom or single parent, but finding the best time for self-care in your schedule will allow you to find balance without the mom guilt. Self-care can also be done without leaving your home, and you can even get your kids involved too!

Other ways that will help you find balance in self-care at home:

Take a bubble bath
DIY foot peel & face masks
Do a massage train with your partner, kids, or the whole family!

Start Living a Balanced Lifestyle as a Small Business Owner and Mom Today

By taking the time to focus on balancing these 6 areas of your life – routine, physical health, mental health, planning, healthy eating, and self-care – you can significantly improve your quality of life, relationships, and strive to become the best you that you can be! Just remember, start with one day at a time, and focus on balancing one area of your life at a time. The point is to not create more overwhelm and burnout, but to learn to live a balanced lifestyle on your terms!

What things have you made a habit of in order to live a balanced lifestyle? I’d love to hear from you, leave me a comment below!

Your Friend & Pilates Expert,

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Kayla Brugger
Founder of PILATESBODY by Kayla
Founder of PILATESBODY On-Demand

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