Maintaining Balance
Sarah S.
An example of balance is when a person divides her time evenly between work, family, and personal pleasure.
Being a wife, mother and full-time child life specialist fills most of my time. I am also an active member of my church, have one daughter in competition dance, one in gymnastics and am investing time into this blog. Finding how to balance each of these and give them the time they deserve is difficult.
Here’s a few things I’ve found that help:
Know When to Say NO
I know, I know, it’s cliche, but it’s really true. I find the times I get overwhelmed are because I have put too much on my plate. Part of maintaining balance is knowing what you can handle and handling what you can. Be mindful of what you already have going on and decide if you can add one more thing. I am a person that always wants to say yes , but I have learned that if I overwhelm myself with too many tasks, then I won’t excel in fulfilling them all. Saying no allows you to give the time and attention to the things you say yes to.
Ask for Help
Yes, you really can ask for help! You should ask for help. You can’t do it all on your own and most times if you try, you’ll end up defeated, wondering how you are going to get everything done. Asking for help or taking up someone’s offer to help will ease the amount on your plate and free you up to focus on one thing at a time.
Don’t Stress
Even the best laid plans fail sometimes. So, now what? You feel like you’ve failed and let everyone down. If you are striving for perfection, you will fail every time. This is where you allow yourself forgiveness. I’ve found that if you will take five minutes to allow yourself to regroup and make plan b, you’ll usually find that everything is not completely ruined.
Breathe
I cannot emphasize this enough. There will always be things that are out of your control, but that doesn’t mean that you are out of control. When those things don’t go as planned, taking a moment to breathe can do wonders for yourself. Close your eyes, inhale through your nose and exhale out your mouth. When you exhale, imagine blowing out the stress. Repeat as needed until you start to feel your body relax.
Maintaining balance is difficult and something I still struggle with, but being mindful of what you have going on, allowing yourself time to think before saying yes, letting others help and pausing to breathe will start to even out the scales.
