A Reminder to take Time Out for Yourself

We all have so much to do, but taking time for ourselves is important.

Enjoy the Beach (my own photo)

Some days even getting up feels like too much. We wake up overwhelmed by work, getting the kids to school, chores and many other things we have to do during the day. We spend so much time mentally listing these things inside our heads so that we don’t forget them, that by the time we get up we wish we could just crawl back into bed and go back to sleep. We spend so much time doing this, that when we finally get up, we have already overwhelmed ourselves with so much to do in one day.

It is ok to check everything that we need to do that day, on your to do list, however do we ever add ‘time out’ to our list? Thinking about making time for ourselves during a very busy day, is usually the last thing we think about. We think so much about getting everything done in our day, that we usually miss this off our check-list. However, it is important that we take time out and make us a priority. When we wake in the morning, we wake with a ‘think work, go to work, do work’ attitude or we create ‘chores days.’ This can be a good motivator, whether we are working at an office, at home, or home-making. However, for some, especially those who don’t work, it can turn into an endless day of doing chores without a break.

When you are at work, your mind will be occupied with work. However, working people become so obsessed with ‘getting it done,’ that often they take too much work home with them, overwhelming themselves to a point where they literally have no time too look after themselves or spend it with family. I remember when my husband worked as a nurse, doing long hours during the day and night. I barely saw him. He was so tired when he came home that sometimes he would head straight to bed. When he had his days off, he would be consumed with catching up with letters and care-plans, and some days he would be inundated with calls from people he worked with. He barely had time to look after his physical or mental health, and by the time lunch time came around, he would lose his appetite. Obviously, nursing can be a really stressful and exhausting job, however if you don’t take time to look after yourself, your mental health shuts down, and you will lose focus which leads to a lack of productivity and and energy.