Photo Credit: Nathan Dumlao at Unsplash
Busy Bee Syndrome
In this day and age, it’s easy to get caught up in life. You have to be here; you have to be there. It’s seems that a conversation can’t take place without someone discussing how busy they are, where they have to take all of their kids, and how much work they had to bring home. New technology is supposed to make our lives easier; however, we have to work twice as hard just to afford it. It is constantly beeping, reminding us that we have something to do after we finish what we are doing right now.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to take time for yourself in this crazy life. Ladies, you tend to put a lot of family issues on their shoulders: baths for the kids, dinner, laundry, grocery shopping. Gentlemen, you tend to work hard for the money. And many of you do all of this. All of this on top of your full-time jobs.
Stop the Madness!
This has to stop (regardless of gender). As an adult, your family doesn’t function right when you aren’t at your best. That simply can’t happen if you can’t give 100% because you haven’t taken a moment to take care of yourself. It doesn’t have to be something big; it just has to be yours and yours alone. It has to be something you enjoy. It has to be something that doesn’t feel like another chore. If leading a busy life is something that is important to you and you’re addicted to creating events in your calendar, then “schedule” your down time.
Self-Care Benefits
There are so many benefits to taking time for yourself. You’ll find more mental clarity. You’ll even find that you have more energy to do the things you need to do because you took the time to re-energize. The fogginess and lack of memory will start to clear up. The fatigue you feel daily will start to creep away.
Not that I want to compare your life to a plane going down, but for the sake of the analogy, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. When you first board that plane, the flight attendant goes through the procedure of putting the mask on yourself before you put it on anyone else in case of an emergency. This is because you can’t help anyone if you don’t take care of yourself first.
“But I’m too busy,” you say to me. Excuses. Give yourself at least 10 minutes a day for one week. Give yourself 15 minutes a day the following week. Eventually you’ll see the benefits of doing this and work your way up to 30 minutes. Heck! Maybe even an hour! The point is that it simply needs to be done. You wouldn’t deny your kids or your significant other something that was going to benefit them. Why would you deny it for yourself?
