Remember Ker Plunk? If you grew up in the 70s, you probably remember this popular game.

If you’re not familiar with the game, it was basically a clear plastic tube with holes in it and long sticks called straws were inserted into the middle of the tube making a lattice. Once the sticks are in place, marbles are added that rest on top of the sticks. Each player takes a turn removing a stick. Eventually the marbles start to fall and the player who ends up with the most marbles loses the game.

I was thinking about Ker Plunk as a metaphor for how women’s lives (myself included) can get out of balance.

The marbles represent all the things we need to do. As the list gets longer, the straws, which represent the foundations of our health, start to be removed. Sooner or later, all the marbles come crashing down because there’s nothing left to support them.

This is what modern day living looks like to me. Everything is crisis management, overscheduling, rushing around and more and more marbles (aka responsibilities) being heaped on our straws. Eventually, health suffers because there are no more straws to hold everything up.

Each time a straw is removed, we experience a decline in health like getting sick, or extra weight you just can’t lose, or not sleeping well, or dealing with hot flashes and night sweats, or having a short fuse, or binge-eating a whole bag of  You fill in the blank.

Chances are there were clues along the way, but no one sees them until it’s too late.

When women come to my office for help with their health, they think the overwhelming load of responsibilities is no big deal. They’re so used to carrying the weight of an overscheduled life that they don’t realize their straws are slowly being removed, leaving them exhausted both mentally and physically.

Part of my role as a naturopathic practitioner is to gently point out what I’m seeing. It’s only when I mention how unreasonable their demanding schedule is that I see recognition dawning. The reason many women haven’t been able to resolve their health problems is they had no idea what was causing them.

This is where a wellness professional can make a big difference. We’ve experienced our own physical and emotional stressors, so we know what it looks like. It was through learning how to resolve my own health issues that made it possible for me to help others.

My goal is to help you to start looking at things through a different lens. We begin with determining where the issues are most problematic and creating a plan that leads to recovery. It might be sleep, relationships, food, exercise, lack of creativity, family, job, faith, or any other area that’s being affected.

Is your life out of balance? Are you grinding away with full, overscheduled days? If this sounds familiar, I invite you to schedule a free Discovery Call for some tips to get you back on track.

If you’re ready to take action, please join our new L.I.V.E. Protocol ? VIP Experience Group Program.

I encourage you to make a plan today to get your life back in balance before your Last Straw is gone.

Wishing you well,