I relax through writing, through the meeting of pencil upon paper (or fingers upon a keyboard). However, when you write for your work, you find that you have less time and motivation to write for fun. For instance, my last blog post was probably a week ago; I’ve been so caught up in other writing clients and projects, that I’ve scarcely had time to write for fun (which this blog is for me).

Upon advice from my friend over at Guardians of the Hearth—which I highly recommend you read because her posts makes you think (but not in an exhausted way: in an excited “I can do this!” way)—I started, for the last 20 minutes, to analyze my feelings. Now, I don’t know about you, but I tend to suppress the negative emotions and take the good ones for granted. So, I looked back at this last week. I’ve been busy in a good way, but I’ve also started to feel exhausted in a not so good way, like life and events are overcoming me. And when I start to feel overcome or sad or depressed, I read.

What’s so bad about that? Reading is good for you.

Not the way I do it. I read ad nauseam, nonstop. It’s too much. Sickening. Moderation in all things, and all that, and there’s no moderation in how I read.

So why am I overwhelmed? I make sure to run every day, do yoga (a couple of times a week), read the scriptures, pray…so what’s the deal? My balance is off. My writing for fun has been thrown to the back burner in order to make time for writing for a living. And I’ve suffered for it.

The point here: have balance in your life. It’s hard to be happy when you’re either working all the time or playing all the time. You need both. Have fun. I write for fun. It’s my release, just like running is another release. Without both and all those other basic elements like scripture study and prayer (for the religious) or meditation, I become unhappy and overwhelmed.

Find your balance; find your joy.