I believe that when our bodies are balanced and healthy then it is that much easier for our souls and spirits to be balanced as well. Instead of trying to do a balancing act with all the obligations we place on ourselves (talking to me here) I'm going to make a little more effort to create a balanced life instead of juggling my life in an attempt to keep myself from losing my balance and dropping the ball (figuratively speaking).  So I'm sharing these five gluten free, yummy, body balancing smoothies to get you and me a little balanced start. Lynsay Caylor Russell shares this easy berry paleo smoothie for those busy mornings on the run.  Here's another clean eating berry smoothie from Tiffany at The Gracious Pantry. Love the purple! Gaby from What's Gaby Cooking shares this yummy green machine smoothie made with some Greek yogurt. I'll be making mine with my homemade greek yogurt. Nicole from Gluten Free on  a Shoestring has some great gluten free recipes and shares this Paleo Chocolate Banana Smoothie. Yum! And here's one of my favs, Citrus Ginger Green Smoothie I posted here on Food L'amor a little while ago, but it's worth sharing again ;) Why all the talk about balance? I picked up a book the other day, one I'd read before, but it'd been long enough that as I read the words felt new and fresh. It's called, A Quiet Heart by Patricia T. Holland (wife to Jeffrey R. Holland. An apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.) Reading it is like having a conversation with my soft spoken, surprisingly funny and deeply wise grandma.  In it she quotes Anne Morrow Lindbergh about the tumultuous conditions woman today struggle with in an effort to have a quiet heart at peace: "The Feminists did not look...far [enough] ahead; they laid down no rules of conduct. For them it was enough to demand the privileges...And [so] woman today is still searching. We are aware of our hunger and needs, but still ignorant of what will satisfy them. With our garnered free time, we are more apt to drain our creative springs than to refill them. With our pitchers, we attempt...to water a field, [instead of] a garden. We throw ourselves indiscriminately into committees and causes. Not knowing how to free the spirit, we try to muffle its demands in distractions. Instead of stilling the center, the axis of the wheel, we add more centrifugal activities to our lives -- which tend to throw us [yet more] off balance...[For women] the problem is [still] how to feed the soul" (Gift from the Sea, 20th anniversary edition, with an afterword by the author [Vintage Books, 1978], 51-52). Holland sums up this balancing act with this great analogy. "The analogy is of the soul -- a human soul, with all if its splendor -- being placed in a beautifully carved but very tightly locked box. Reigning in majesty and illuminating our soul in this innermost box is our Lord and our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, the living Son of the living God. This box is then placed -- and locked -- inside another larger one, and so on until five beautifully carved but very securely locked boxes await the woman who is skillful and wise enough to open them...Success will then reveal to her the beauty and divinity of her own soul, her gifts and her grace as a daughter of God." Now to unlock the boxes.