31 Days – Making Time for Self-Care
self-care? For me, I always think a day
at the spa. I’m not sure why, I think
that self-care to me means a little bit of pampering, and the spa seems to
check off all those boxes.
time.” And as a mom, I often feel that
that is an accurate statement.
aren’t enough hours in the day!
And I still feel like that a lot of the time. The days move so quickly, and I am putting so
much of myself into my kids and husband that there is very little left for me.
do we make that time?
my own self-care finding time was next to impossible. I continued to read the advice “if it is
important to you, you will make time.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but whoever this person was, I am convinced
they did not have little children and all the interruptions that come with
little children.
time that they need, and they have figured out a way that works for them. I was not one of those moms. I struggled to find time that would give me
more than five minutes alone.
of self-care often is sitting quietly in a room with my journal, a good book,
and some tea; not going out to a coffee shop or some other establishment.
When you have little kids,
it is hard to go to a quiet room, and if you find a quiet room, it doesn’t stay
quiet for long.
will make time,” the less I was irritated about the statement, and the more I
tried to find strategies that would work for my specific situation.
my kids in the house. There were the
evenings off that my husband and I tried to give one another, the super early
mornings, Sunday afternoons, early weekend mornings, late nights when everyone
was finally asleep; I honestly have tried them all.
self-care equation.
You will have to try out all.the.things in order to figure out what is going to work well.
when Matt would put the kids to bed and I would sit in what was then my craft
room working on what I wanted to, replenishing me. Of course the kids knew that I was in the
craft room, and they wanted to work on crafts as well. So between the many interruptions, I would
feel more frazzled at the end of my “self-care time” than when I started.
in the world, and would be fully awake and ready to go at 5am if I let
them. That isn’t completely fair, Jack
will stay in bed a lot later than Emma.
But, for a time, I could not get Emma to stay in bed until even
6am. Even now, she rarely sleeps past
6:30.
to *try* to find that time for self-care.
spa day? Well, my definition has
evolved. Now, it really is any time
alone that I can concentrate on something that I love. Some things that I love are writing, reading,
and knitting. I mean, I also love a
spa-day, but since that isn’t quite in the every day budget, or even the every
month budget, I need to make room for other activities that will replenish my
mind and body.
routines, and how that can be time for self-care later on this month.
time
mornings
afternoon
break
nights (if you are a night owl)
· Your
commute to and from work
commute? We will get into how to use
some of those times for self-care later, but what I want you to do is to look
for margin in your day. Can you find it?
find 15 minutes today to be able to relax with a book, with a cup of tea, with
some chocolate, to rejuvenate you and prepare you to be your best self? Are you working on time assessment for the week?
Thank you for the encouragement and the ideas! I'm happy to report I just spent the past 15 minutes soaking my feet in a detox footbath – heavenly! I also had a cup of peppermint tea with me, multitasking!
This may not work for everyone, but I'm pretty sure my mom was brilliant. I used to get up super early as a young kid, so on weekends I was tasked with getting breakfast (pop tarts from the pantry) and being quiet in my bedroom until my parents were up, then I could go out and actually be in the living room. But until they were up, I was to stay in my room. I had a TV, and watched the kid's lineup on PBS or a movie or something or whatever else, while my parents still slept or were on the computer or whatever. Now, though, I'm not sure how many parents let their kids have televisions in their bedrooms, nor how many let them have poptarts, but it worked. Plus, it let me feel independent – being able to feed myself and entertain myself for an hour or two. And, then, even if my parents were up early – I didn't know, as I was in my room, and they had time to themselves!
I would love to learn this trick of getting your kids to stay in their bedroom! I have been trying to convince my 7 year old to stay in her room until 7 – she is an early riser too. It hasn't worked out that great so far, but I am still working on it! They have been better about sleeping past 5:30am lately…so I guess it is all about the baby steps! 🙂