Art of Happiness:

Balance

The Wheel of Life

Balancing Your Family and Business Life

Learn to juggle your work and family. Even if you are in a very hard-hitting, high-powered position in your business, you do not have to sacrifice your family. Take self-care measures and get creative about integrating your work and family life so you can be a successful leader and fulfill personal obligations.

Buddhism: The Wheel of Life

The Wheel of Life is a representation of the Buddhist teaching on the suffering and impermanence of cyclic existence.

Dalai Lama of Tibet, the Winner of the Nobel Piece Prize, explains the differences between the Buddhist and Western approaches to life, "In modern Western society, there seems to be a powerful cultural conditioning that is based on science. But in some instances, the basic premises and parameters set up by Western science can limit your ability to deal with certain realities. For instance, you have the constraints of the idea that everything can be explained within the framework of a single lifetime, and you combine this with the notion that everything can and must be explained and accounted for. But when you encounter phenomena that you cannot account for, then there's a kind of tension created; it's almost a feeling of agony. In Western psychology there may be a tendency to overemphasize the role of the unconscious in looking for the source of one's problems. This stems from some of the basic assumptions that Western psychology starts with: for instance, they do not accept the idea of imprints being carried over from a past life. And at the same time there is an assumption that everything must be accounted for within this lifetime. So, when you can't explain what is causing certain behaviors or problems, the tendency is to always attribute it to the unconscious. It's a bit like you've lost something and you decide that the object is in this room. And once you have decided this, then you've already fixed your parameters; you've precluded the possibility of its being outside the room or in another room.

So you keep on searching and searching, but you are not finding it, yet you continue to assume that it is still hidden somewhere in the room!"

"Buddhism can accept many of the factors that the Western theorists can come up with, but on top of that it would add additional factors.

For example, it would add the conditioning and imprints from previous lives."²

Hinduism: Aspiration for Balance

Hindu approach to the human life shows aspiration for balance. For example, the concept of four ashramas (stages of life) has been developed to actualize this need for balance. The same goal has the concept of three vargas (goals of life): artha (success, profit), dharma (consciousness development/ religious duty) and kama (love). In Hinduism these three purposes of life are seen as equal and essential to fulfill. It is said that  artha, dhama and kama constitute the one way to moksha.

Islam: Leading a Balanced Life

A balanced life is the way of Islam. Islam teaches people not to be extremists: i.e. neither do too little nor do too much, but follow the Golden Balance.

Islam teaches people not to be extremists: i.e. do neither too little nor too much, but follow the Golden Balance. Furthermore, it teaches people to seek a balance between various facets of life. There should be harmony and balance between all of the following goals:

• Financial Goals

• Religious Goals

• Intellectual Goals

• Social Goals

• Family Goals

• Personal Goals

• Philanthropic Goals

• Physical Goals³

  Bibliography:

1. "NLP Coaching", Ian McDermott and Wendy Jago

2. "The Art of Happiness", HH the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and Howard C. Cutler,

3. "Goal Setting for Muslims", Ahmed Adam, www.islamfortoday.com

4. "Psychologist Lily Kelly-Radford is proof positive that a high-powered career and family life can co-exist," Deborah Smith Bailey

5. "Discover Yourself," Vadim Kotelnikov

6. "Life," Vadim Kotelnikov

7. "Success Secrets," Vadim Kotelnikov

8. "Love," Vadim Kotelnikov

9. "Happiness," Vadim Kotelnikov

10. "Creativity," Vadim Kotelnikov

11. "Entrepreneurial Creativity," Vadim Kotelnikov