Making Time for Myself

The title of this blog post is a bit of a misdirection. It is more of a public promise to myself to do just that. Currently, I rarely make time for myself. My husband calls me a “slave driver to myself”. When I did the Discovery Dyet this year (more on that later- in a word, fantastic) I found that I am an Analytical/Driver personality. It means a lot of things, but one thing that applies here is that I am a self-motivated person that can very easily focus on work and ignore the rest of life. I will put working over fun and friendship if I let myself. I’m paraphrasing here, but it is what I am like in my life. Since I have decided that “BLOGGING IS LIFE”, whole days go away on me, and I have to set alarms so I get up from my computer to eat. No work-life balance, I know! If I was my own employee, I would have to talk to myself sternly about creating more balance. So here I am, doing just that. The thing is, I love writing and if I could spend every waking moment researching new topics and sharing them with you, my dear readers, I would. My legs would shrivel up and I wouldn’t sleep and I would be happy as a clam.

However, I know in my heart that it isn’t healthy. I need to schedule me-time in! I am not alone. North Americans don’t even rate in the top ten when it comes to countries with the best work-life balance. We are taught from the get go that “the early bird gets the worm” and “the ant gets ready for winter” and all of those “work hard, sleep when you’re dead” go-get-em metaphors. It gets to be so, when I do balance it out correctly and have free time, I am consumed by guilt. Some countries have siestas in the afternoon, while I chew my nails with anxiety that I am not working hard enough. This all-or-nothing mindset about my work has to go.  Even for my friends that work in an office, I have heard them lament that they didn’t work through lunch or they didn’t bring work home with them. I think we all need to shift the mindset…and by “we all”, I mean my fellow workaholics. 🙂 If you already have a good work-life balance, by all means, teach me how! I am all ears. Comment below. I could seriously use the help.

I have proposed a challenge for myself as a result. This month of November I am making time to:

• Do ten minutes of meditation a day
• Write in my journal or read for ten minutes a day
• Start a practice of gratitude, either by mentally declaring it every morning or by starting a gratitude journal
• Take time to stretch for two minutes, once every hour

These simple steps will hopefully give me the time I need to recharge throughout the day, without being attached to my computer all day. What do you think? Want to join me?