People experience different internal responses to life's challenges. Some withdraw from difficult situations to think them through, while others withdraw from their emotions to try and keep themselves from feeling anything. Some explode with emotions, but allow the explosion to pass quickly, yet others linger with their feelings, holding on to them well past the time they should have let them go.

Maturity and self-development help us learn new and more effective methods of handling our world and the problems we confront. In Numerology, your Balance number provides you with the guidance on how best to deal with difficult or threatening situations.

Your Balance number is considered a minor influence - that is, until your personal life is off-balance and you must rely more heavily on this number. When you go through emotional turmoil, the Balance number becomes very important.

To figure out your Balance number, add the numerical value of the initials of your full name at birth - first, middle and last initials, then reduce them to a single digit.

For example, using the name Andrew Stefano Clement: his initials are A, S and C. Their numerical values are 1, 1 and 3 respectively.

His Balance number therefore, is 2 + 1 + 8 = 11, which further reduces to 2. Thomas has a 2 Balance number. (Reduce any double-digit number to a single digit when calculating Balance numbers, including Master numbers.)

Draw strength from yourself, but be more willing to share your troubles with friends and family. You can be a loner in the face of problems, which can isolate you during troubled times. Be open to the advice of others. This will widen your perspective on the problem and give you new information on which to base your approach. Strength, creativity and courage are the arms with which you will win the war.

Use tact and diplomacy. Be less emotional - you are overly sensitive and have to work to be more balanced. Balance and harmony will be there for you the minute you truly apply yourself to a problem. You must be courageous in your approach to the solution you seek, rather than backing away from the problem because you fear confrontation. Your innate talent is to find a mutually satisfying solution to all, so be more optimistic and lighthearted, and by all means try not to blow problems out of proportion.

Use your considerable charm to influence troubling situations you face. You can be extremely emotional when faced with a problem, so try to control this tendency - you need a degree of objectivity. You may become too personally attached to the solution you seek, thus failing to see other options, or looking past the impact a solution could make on other people. Be more lighthearted and optimistic in your approach to problems to reach more mutually satisfying solutions with others.

Try to have perspective and a more lighthearted attitude toward emotionally-charged issues. And do control your anger; discipline is your real strength. You would do well to consider the need for compromise too - your sense of justice must be elevated to another level where such virtues as forgiveness, compassion and deep understanding are the guiding lights. A practical approach to these ideals is to try to put yourself in the shoes of the person with whom you are in conflict. There are always more angles to a problem than you tend to acknowledge.

It's far wiser for you to put real focus on your problem, rather than trying to avoid it. You may try to avoid the issue by indulging your senses to keep from feeling the pain of a conflict. Be careful not to escape into food, alcohol and drugs. You are capable of finding a highly-creative solution to any situation the minute you really put your mind to it. The answer lies well within your grasp.

Your strength lies in your understanding of people and the underlying conditions of a conflict. But you can rely too heavily on friends and family to provide you with solace, instead of handling the situation directly and responsibly on your own. You may be too likely to retreat to the good feelings provided by people not involved in your situation. Responsibility is the real issue here. You helped create the situation in the first place and are an essential part of the solution. Accept your role.

When an issues arises, you tend to retreat into some safe haven within yourself and hope you will not have to deal with it. Yet, the clarity and analytical abilities of your mind are more than sufficient to provide you with insight into your problem, and a clear path to its solution. You have to work at confronting yourself and the issues you face unemotionally and calmly. You can be engulfed in the emotional aspects of the issue, which clouds your mind and prevents you from using your clarity to find a solution. Get past the emotion and you will find an answer.

You must use your considerable power in a balanced way when seeking solutions to emotional issues. You may use power in a manipulative way, rather than confront people on principle. Instead, accept personal responsibility for the issue and its solution - you have enormous creativity and the leadership to find an answer to almost any problem. Try not to force your own solution upon groups, but include their concerns and ideas in the larger solution that you can bring about. Learn to use power for the good of all, not just one.

You will find the solutions you seek when you empathize with the concerns of others. You have a gift for understanding a wide variety of people and seeing the broader picture. But too often you retreat to aloofness, a kind of Ivory Tower, in which you regard yourself as an aristocrat, above the masses. You can find answers by coming down to the practical reality where people live. It is in giving that you will receive.