Here are 8 tips for personal balance.
It’s hard work: Parenting, working, partnering, shopping, cooking, cleaning and partnering. So here are a few reminders of how to keep all the parts of your life in balance.
1. Take 15 minutes before or after the children are asleep to be alone. (This must be awake time). Sit, relax, contemplate nothing. Don’t plan the shopping list or schedule tomorrow. Just sit still. Breathe. Light a candle or sip a cup of herbal tea.
2. Walk outside. Just 5 minutes. Not exercise. Just breathing.
3. Delegate. (It’s hard for me, too). Ask for help, ask for a break from something you are not as good at. Don’t criticize those that have picked up what you have asked them to do. Just say, ‘thank you.’
4. Read something that heightens your awareness, makes you ponder or gives you comfort. Affirmations, positive quotes, etc.
5. Clean just one area each week that is making you uncomfortable. You get to decide how much. Perhaps it is one drawer that is frustrating. Maybe it’s the car or the bathroom counter. Then congratulate yourself.
6. At the end of the day, everyday list off 10 things that you are grateful for. (I use my fingers to count while drifting off to sleep). My health, my children, the phone call from a friend, enough money to pay the bills….
7. Make your sleeping area beautiful in a new way. Clip a flower and place in a vase, light a candle before bedtime, change the sheets long before bedtime so they are clean and crisp, spray linen spray on your sheets or scented talcum. Whether you are in a partnership or alone, you deserve pleasant sleep.
8. Find reasons to celebrate. The bills are completed! Celebrate with a cool drink. The floor is vacuumed! Celebrate with 15 minutes of your guilty pleasure reading. The kids are in bed on time! Celebrate with hand holding with your partner. You decide.
These are a few reminders to help you keep your life in balance. By being more kind to yourself – you will be a more effective employee, a better parent and a more loving spouse – and more in balance for the rest of your fabulous life.
