Chasing work-life balance can ‘lead to anxiety,’ says a Harvard professor – try the ‘pendulum lifestyle’ instead.

Pursuing work-life balance is wonderful, but it can be scary. Fortunately, there is a new perspective that offers a realistic and achievable way to live.

Jeff Karp, a professor of biological engineering at Harvard Medical School and MIT, uses his scientific background to compare the backward and forward movements of the pendulum to the ebb and flow of everyday life.

In his book, LIT, which stands for Life Ignition Tools, Karp encourages readers to use nature as a playbook for creating ideas and taking action. Another tool he mentions is following the “pendulum lifestyle.”

“We hear these things from others, [like] trust in action [and] Equality is very important, we need more balance, that’s the main goal,” Karp tells CNBC Do.

“It ends up being very confusing and can lead to anxiety, because we always feel like we’re not stable. There’s a state we need to be in. [and] we are never in that situation.”

Karp realized in his life that no matter how hard he tried, stability in life was always unstable.

“I realized that if we start looking at everything in life, like our energy, our motivation, our hunger, our sleep… like everything it’s on a pendulum, and you start to step back and visualize that, I think. It can be very powerful,” he said. “Like a pendulum, [there are] these natural rhythms in life.”

Here are practical ways you can use the ebbs and flows of life to your advantage.

Whether it’s your quality of sleep that’s changing or your energy level that needs some work, when the pendulum swings in a direction you don’t like, be patient with yourself, Karp suggests.

“Start shifting your focus away from this expectation of achieving a goal and shift it more toward what is an easy, actionable step to take to turn things around,” on the other hand, he says.

At those times, Karp encourages you to take it as a fun challenge and try some of these steps:

1. Notice what happens: Take a close look at how your daily habits can affect the condition. Now, make positive changes that will support you better.
2. Pay attention to your natural energy patterns: Describe the times of the day, days of the week or seasons of the year when you have the highest and lowest temperatures. Adjust your schedule around those times for extra productivity and rest periods.
3. Be interested: Develop an interest in difficult times and see what you can learn from them. Be open to new experiences that can increase your endurance.
4. Understand that when the pendulum swings one way, it must swing back: For every down, up can happen around the corner. Remember that change is the only constant.
5. Check yourself regularly: Think about what is going on in your life on a larger scale that may be causing you to feel out of balance. Decide what small steps you will take to improve over time.

Let’s say the problem is that you are getting less, quality sleep. Practicing a pendulum lifestyle might look like going to bed earlier or stretching for a few minutes before you try to sleep to relax your body, Karp says.

“Look at what’s working and what’s holding [you] come back,” he encourages. “Now think of other possibilities, other ways of thinking, [like] ‘What is one first step I can take?’

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