It had been another grueling day.
Beyond wife and mother, I had also carried roles of chauffer, cook, maid, full-time employee, boo-boo kisser, toy truck driver, storybook reader, and bather extroidinaire. On top of that, I was 6 months pregnant.
By the time I got my 4 and 2 year old to bed, I was exhausted.
The temptation arose to walk straight to my bedroom, pull back the covers, and crawl into my nice cozy bed - In work clothes and all.
I walked into my bedroom and took a second to stair at the bed. I swear it was literally calling my name.
Then came the tough decision: crawl into bed and wake up in wrinkled, uncomfortable clothes with whatever's left of my make up smeared across my face, or take 15 minutes all to myself to jump in a nice, hot shower, and give my face a good, clean wash before crawling into bed.
I'm not going to lie, sometimes the "just crawling into bed" thing wins out.
But truthfully, deep down inside, I know that taking those extra 15 minutes to myself not only gives me a chance to wash off the day, but also soothes my soul.
You see, often those 15 minutes are the only 15 minutes I've really had to myself all day. No one is asking questions, no one is in need of a drink or a snack or to be wiped on the potty (ug). It's just... me.
What I'm learning in this phase of life is that, as women, taking some time to ourselves is extremely important.
It gives us a chance to regroup and rejuvenate our souls. Overwhelm is a real thing. I've felt it personally, and I'm sure you've felt it, too (if you aren't feeling it right now). We keep running and running. Giving and giving. We're natural born helpers. The only danger with this willingness to run and give and help, is that it's incredibly easy to burn out. Prepare yourself, this is going to sound selfish, but... sometimes we need to just slow down and take time for ourselves. It doesn't have to be anything extravagant or time-consuming. It could simply mean 15 minutes in the bathroom to yourself. But if we don't take any time to take care of ourselves, our soul loses it's chance to breath.
Exercising self-care keeps us grounded. When I'm scrambling around and miss out on taking time for myself, I tend to get a little... cranky. (I absolutely guarantee my hubby can attest to this.) When we start to feel depleted, our emotions can take over and create situations that may seem worse in our mind than they actually are at that present moment. My point is, it's easy to get carried away with the drama if we're not taking any time to ourselves to process our emotions and thoughts. If we can take some time to do something our soul's need, it tends to bring the emotions back down to a manageable level.
We carry dozens of titles a day - Mother, wife, employee, co-worker, etc. Where do we place ourselves on this list?
Take some time today to think about how you can spend 15 minutes on self-care each day. It can be as simple as taking a shower, going for a walk, or painting your nails. Whatever you need to rejuvenate your soul - find those 15 minutes and do it. I promise you won't regret it!
No comments:
Post a Comment