Hope & Harmony: 8 Areas That Keep Us Moving Forward

There’s a kind of heaviness in the air these days. Endless negative headlines, polarized debates, constant pressure to “perform.” We’re often told to chase “work-life balance” as if life were a perfectly even scale. But here’s the thing I discovered on a silent meditation retreat: balance is a myth. Every one of us draws a different line for each of our eight life buckets: health, career, purpose, growth, family, faith, friends, and love.

What we're really after is harmony, not balance.

Harmony means identifying your personal fill line in each area—your harmonic level—and then scheduling your time around the activities that keep each bucket at or above its own mark. For me, health and purpose have high fill lines, while family requires far less time to stay topped up. As long as those two buckets are full, I’m closer to operating in harmony, and hope flows naturally. Below, I’ll share a snapshot of each bucket, a simple ritual to refill it, and how to build your own Hope & Harmony system.