Life Balance

Have you wondered if there’s MORE to being a mom? There IS a better way for you to get through the challenging times or to find the delicate balance between what you need to do and what you want your life to be?

Find out the top three things you can do to create more balance in your life.

Finding balance is a real challenge for moms these days. We feel like we have to do it all: to be SuperMoms and to have a successful professional life/ business. The truth is, we can’t do it all at once. At least not if we don’t want to burn ourselves out. So, what can we do? We can establish priorities, we can honour ourselves, and we can reach out to others.

ESTABLISH PRIORITIES

Some people will say there is no life balance. In the sense that you can’t do everything at the same time, this is true. What you can do is make priorities to focus on certain things when you need to and then focus on the others and over time, this creates a balance of the different aspects in your life. Just identifying your priorities and making decisions on how you will organise your time will help you feel more in control and less overwhelm.

So, what do you need to do right now? First, decide how much time you want to allocate to each of these aspects of your life: personal, family and business. When setting your priorities respect and maintain these boundaries to feel more balance. Now, identify your most urgent needs and those things you need to do before they become urgent needs. And, focus on those things first.

Whatever it is you are doing, your urgent business tasks or spending time with your family, be in the moment of doing it. You can’t do a good job of any of them if you are not concentrating on them, and you can’t feel the joy if you are worrying about something else. Enjoy whatever is in front of you right now and worry about the rest when you choose to work on it.

By focusing on your priorities you will be taking one step at a time to accomplishing all of your dreams, and all great journeys start with the small steps. Sometimes you will focus more on your kids, sometimes on your business or work, sometimes on your partner, and sometimes on yourself. That’s ok. In the end, you will be surprised how far you have come and how much you have enjoyed by establishing those priorities, respecting the boundaries, and being in the moment.

HONOUR YOURSELF

When you are setting your priorities and deciding how much time to spend on various aspects of your life, don’t forget about yourself! As a caring and nurturing mom, you find it hard to justify spending time on yourself. But, you need to make sure that you take care of yourself so you will have more to give others. If you are to thrive, you need to have some downtime to recharge your batteries, you need to reconnect with what’s important to you as a person, and you need to do things you love to do.

So, honour yourself. Spend some time alone. Allow yourself 15 minutes during the day to do nothing, to just be. Take the time to connect with God and the Universe. What does that look like for you? Thinking, meditating, praying, singing, reaching out to someone? Also, do something joyful, something that makes your heart sing. Is that exercising, doing something creative, reading, connecting with nature, going for a walk or having a tea?

Be kind to yourself. We all put so many expectations on ourselves and feel bad about ourselves when we are not able to meet them all. If you were to talk to a friend, what would your friend say about all of the expectations you put on yourself? She would tell you to be patient with yourself and to take care of yourself. What would your mother say? She would say she was proud of you and that she can’t believe how well you’re doing. What would God say? He would say that you are perfect just the way you are and that your worth is not dependent upon your accomplishments.

Spending time by yourself, connecting with God, doing something joyful and being kind to yourself will leave you more peaceful, more in synch with yourself, your identity. You will feel calmer and more energetic, ready to take on your next priorities.

REACH OUT TO OTHERS

If you’re like me, you find it hard to ask for help. You find needing help somehow a reflection on your ability and your independence. However, trying to do everything yourself means that you may not be making the best use of your abilities. Distinguishing what you need to do and what someone else can do for you liberates you to do what you do best and means that you will have more energy to do those things that nobody else can do. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of making the best use of your time and abilities.

Surround yourself with superstars that will care for you and your family and liberate your time. Do you have the awesomest caregiver for your children or a grandparent who is just itching to get some time with the kids? Do you have someone you can trust with those work tasks that you can’t get to like book keeping or marketing? Do you have a friend who loves to cook and with whom you can exchange kitchen duty, trade recipes, or share in meal planning? If you have people you know you can trust, you will feel better about sharing the work around.

Rely on the people close to you to help you on the way. Can your spouse take care of some details that you don’t need to do? Kitchen duty? Housekeeping? Home repair? Can your children help make dinner with you? They can learn about cooking and nutrition and you get family time with them. Put on the tunes and dance around the kitchen. Make it a fun and happy time.

People want to see you succeed and thrive and they want to support you and help you get there. Don’t you want the same for your loved ones? Aren’t you happy when you can help someone? Doesn’t it make you feel good to be there for others? So, why would you assume they are not happy to help you, too? Give them the opportunity to feel good about themselves by helping you when you need it. Allow other people to give to you and to feel good about giving.

By making some decisions about our priorities and how to spend our time, we can feel more in control and less overwhelm. By honouring ourselves, we can ensure that we have the inner peace and joy to fuel us while we are doing what needs to get done. By reaching out to others, we get some well deserved help and we allow others to feel good about giving. Now, you're on your way to creating the life you love. Phew! I feel better already!