As one of today's professional women, you face ever-increasing demands on your time. This demand creates stress and fatigue. It not only wears you out and makes you feel badly, but also ages you faster than you might like. Fortunately there are some strategies you can employ to regain the balance that you desperately need to support your complete well-being.

So what can you do? All three of the following strategies have been proven successful and, in combination, are incredibly powerful catalysts towards finding a perfect balance between work, home, and other demands.

One: Create Silence - Set aside small windows of time in your day to meditate or enjoy complete silence.

Two: Release Worry - Find strategies and tools to release those things that are creating stress.

Three: Build Support - Create a support network of people who understand, who you support and who can be depended on when times get tough. Begin by supporting others and you will find that it comes back to you if you allow it.

Beginning your journey towards balance
The strategies listed above are best tackled in the order listed but are beneficial regardless of how many you accomplish or the order in which you try them.

The simple enjoyment of silence, or meditation, is a wonderful first step toward healing your mind. This practice will allow your mind to begin to build new networks of thought and new, stronger, more supportive perspectives. Just as it's been proven that an athlete's muscles need periods of rest to allow peak performance, our minds also need periods of complete silence (or rest), in order to allow optimal functioning.

Quieting the mind can be quite challenging for anyone who spends the vast majority of her time strategizing, thinking, planning and contemplating. Sometimes complete silence is overwhelming and the mind begins to race, so if you find that this happens, try a 5-minute guided meditation or listening to the sounds of nature (water is always good) as a first step in learning to rest your mind. Choose what feels best, and if you don't know where to begin, then guided meditation, which can be found on tape, CD or even downloaded on the web, can be the perfect solution.

The second phase of beginning a life of balance can be accomplished with a mind that is open to trying out new perspectives. There are lots of ways to make new choices about those things that create stress in our lives. Simple shifts in perspective can be accomplished by simply asking, "Am I creating the stress? Might I be adding to the stress? Or can I choose to let this go and release the stress?" If the answer to even one of these questions is "maybe" or "yes," then the next step is to dig a bit deeper.

Knowledge is a powerful thing and when you realize that it's not you, but rather your repeating patterns of thinking that are causing you additional stress, you are well on your way to finding new perspectives and solutions. I recommend reading books like Wayne Dyer's, There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem, while you work with a coach who specializes in empowering and forward movement. Or simply read and do some introspection to begin. Just knowing that you are larger than your worries and separate from them is a giant step towards knowing that you can overcome them.

The third phase has to do with building a network of supportive friends and colleagues. This isn't work or magic or even a chore, this is about giving and receiving. As people, we don't realize how much impact we have on the world around us. You may be a giver and yet argue that you never receive. Or you may be someone who receives but rarely gives. The universal force behind those times when giving and receiving don't match up is our resistance to one or the other. If you feel as though you always give, but never receive, I challenge you to look at all the times you turned down help that was offered. Begin accepting the helping hand and life will balance itself out.

I am a firm believer that we were placed here to help each other and I have found over the years, that when I need a special support person to show up in my life, that person always shows up. Begin to notice who shows up for you, and I bet you will find that a network is ready to form right before your very eyes. You simply need to be watching so that you don't miss it. We all need a little support sometime, and on a day that you've tried everything else and life still feels too demanding, a supportive friend will hold you up while you regain the strength to tackle it.

To immediately lessen the stress in your life:
• meditate or enjoy silence - just quiet your mind
• release those things that are creating stress
• build a support network (be a support partner for others and accept their help in return)

You'll find yourself in a better place almost immediately and you will soon start noticing the balance returning. Expect that life will show up perfectly balanced in the not too distant future, but don't forget to follow this plan for more than a few days. You may even want to keep it as a permanent part of your newly balanced life. It works!