Balancing Life With This Tried and Tested Self-Care Recipe

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”

Albert Einstein

How do we implement self-care and balance during our every day when we are focusing on daily commitments, crossing chores off the ever-growing list and spending quality time with the people we love?

Good question and one which I spent a lot of time asking myself during 2014 The Year Of Striving For Balance.

This post is a reflection of the year which began with me acting as my usual perfectionist, highly organised, efficient, ’I’ve-got-this’ self who realised, while lying around in bed choked up with the flu and absolutely exhausted, that perhaps my intention to ‘Strive for Balance’ wasn’t going so well.

My determination to keep the household running 110% whether my husband was out of town on business or not, was completely unreasonable and it backfired.

Big time.

The huge lesson learnt during this period was, when times get busy it is important to prioritise your activities, limit them to the ‘have to’s’ and those which add the most value to your wellbeing and make time for self-care.

The reason a lot of us move at a warped speed is that we tend to get on little missions to make sure everything and everyone around us is doing ok. The reality is, if we burn out in the process, then we can’t help anyone. So saying ‘no’ every now and again is actually helping those you love and care about in the long run (note to self…).

After a period of trial and error, I have established a little self-care recipe which helps me to maintain a clear head and sustain a much happier and ultimately healthier every day.

Now to just remember to take my own advice…

4 Essential Ingredients in the Self-care Recipe

• Managing Time – how to make the most out of it

The easiest, clearest way I have found to use the hours in the day most efficiently is to spend approximately 15 minutes per week writing out a schedule.

Now bear with me here.

When your ‘chores list’ is getting out of control the best way to gather perspective and stay efficient is to break them down in calendar form. Prioritise items daily, weekly, monthly and annually.

Let’s keep it simple.

Grab a notebook (or if you are really clever, set it up online), run some lines down a page to create a column for every day of the week and start delegating straight away. It is amazing how putting items down on paper can calm down an overactive mind, help prioritise those ‘have to’s’ and most importantly, see them completed right on time.

• ‘Me Time’ – ask for and accept help

Getting this one sorted was the game changer for me and my everyday happiness. Don’t be too proud to ask for help if you need it to schedule time out and, more importantly, say ‘yes’ when it is offered. Think of it this way – what would you say if a friend asked you for help, or worst still, you found out later that they were struggling to manage something and you could have been the person to lend a helping hand (I know, I know, so much easier said than done).

For me the challenge is remembering the importance of self-care with managing ‘me time’ during a particularly busy period. I have come to learn the life hack of aiming for quality not quantity…

– Start simple. It is amazing the impact which can be felt just by introducing one little ritual to your day which allows you to stop and recharge. Don’t underestimate the value of taking even a simple 15 minutes of self-care to top up your batteries and set you on your way with a fresh dose of motivation. My Little Girl helps me stick to this one – you can read more about that here.

– The next challenge is to introduce something a bit more sustaining, an activity which you schedule in at least once a week (yes get that calendar out). For me starting Yoga was this big-ticket item, you can read and have a laugh at my expense here. A friend of mine chose completely the opposite – kickboxing, which just goes to prove we all have different needs when it comes to self-care. It is important to be true to yourself and keep exploring new things until you find what works best for you.

• Screen Time – outside of work commitments, how much time in front of a screen adds value to your day?

We have screen time boundaries for our children but do we have them for ourselves?

Practising what we preach is a constant challenge which, considering all the online distractions and electrical devices available at our fingertips, is one situation I am personally conscious of setting a positive example.

Children provide a good reminder to switch off devices, be present and interact. I appreciate how they bring me out of my screen trance caused by my passion to share with the growing tribe and online community which is CWMS.

Can we remember a time when we were comfortable with our own space, able to entertain ourselves with just ‘being’ and enjoying quiet time with minimal distractions rather than reaching for outside stimulation?

Here is a link to a very thought-provoking article on the topic written by Joshua Becker founder of ‘becoming minimalist’. Progress not perfection for me with this one as, once again, achieving a balance with my self-care commitment, is something I am determined to persist with.

• Eat Well + Sleep Well – set yourself regular meal and bedtimes and do your best to stick to them

Leading health and wellness professionals such as my trusty ‘go to’ ladies at Healtheco and Balanced Naturopathics will tell you wholesome meals and good quality, undisturbed sleep is not only crucial to self-care but two of the main ingredients for achieving and sustaining a balanced lifestyle.

As loving Parents we manage our children’s healthy lifestyle by ensuring they have enough physical activity, eat sensibly and get enough sleep but, who does this for us?

Establish a cut-off time to begin your end-of-day wind-down, choose relaxing activities to go ‘off duty’ (as my Mum used to say) and take yourself to bed at a reasonable hour. You won’t regret it I promise.

Cleaning the house, sorting out washing, ironing, catching up with social media and finishing off that overdue blog post can all be done much more efficiently after a good night sleep.

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The most important thing when you contemplate these suggestions is to not beat yourself up when your best-laid plans and well-organised intentions, go completely pear-shaped.

Self-care and Naming Your Year

Naming Your Year continues to be single the most influential tradition I adopt every year. 2014, the year I named Striving for Balance, the inspiration behind this post, was no exception.

Here is an excerpt from a guest post I recently wrote for cool people doing cool things regarding the benefits of Naming Your Year:

“We cannot predict what the future holds but each year we can work towards improvements – it is how we take positive steps forward.”

Working at implementing these self-care steps is what helps keep me on track and they are consistently at the forefront of my mind as I reflect on and continue to utilise the lessons a year on.

Now I am interested to know what works for you?

How do you manage self-care when you are feeling overloaded and what tools have you come to rely on when you feel a little run down and overwhelmed.

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