How to Find More Time for You

You take care of the kids, strive to be a supportive wife,  and manage the household.  Additionally, you maintain a job outside the home.  Finding time for yourself is difficult.  You care about your family, and would most certainly do anything for them.  However, you realize that you’re sacrificing your own well-being to take care of everyone and everything.  You’re wondering how to find more time for you.  You’re craving time to yourself.  You know that a little downtime for self-care, self-exploration, and self-gratification is imperative to your health.

What Happens When You’re All About Family

It may seem admirable to be all-consuming of your family’s needs and desires, but eventually it will weigh on you. When you continue to extend yourself, you could start to resent the very people you love.  You may feel that you’ve given up who you are.  Furthermore, you may feel that you’ve given up your joy for life in exchange for their happiness.   Your family is always happy, always has what they need, and they can rely on you to get it all done.  But, at what cost?  How do you find more time for you?

It’s imperative that you not ignore the signs that everything is taking it.  Some women become so overwhelmed that they end up abusing alcohol or sink into depression. This can put you and your family at risk.  It’s possible that you could end up in legal trouble for drinking and driving.  Furthermore, your substance abuse could turn into a full-blown addiction.  Unfortunately, it can have lasting effects on your loved ones.  If you’ve been feeling helpless, sad for long periods of time, moody, engaging in reckless behavior, or abusing substances, there is help in southern California.  If you’re not in the southern California area, there is help in other regions across America too.

How to Find Time for Yourself

Now you know that consuming every moment with your family can be detrimental to your health, you need to do something about it. The problem most women have is finding time in their day to make room for things they enjoy.  How to find more time for you they wonder.  We have a few solutions on how to find more time for you:

• Start with a few minutes – Making schedule changes immediately may prove difficult, so start slow. Try to find a way to squeeze five to ten minutes out of your day for yourself. Whether you get up earlier in the morning or set aside time during your lunch break, just make sure that during that time you’re doing something for yourself. Read your favorite blog, write a poem, go for a walk, eat a healthy snack, listen to your favorite song, etc.

• Pencil it in – Are you good with keeping appointments? If so, you should start penciling in your downtime. Treat it like a doctor’s appointment that you can’t miss. When you’re scheduling your week, add in a few hours to yourself. Make sure you have something interesting planned.  Most importantly, don’t try to get out of keeping an appointment “to do nothing”.   If you don’t have something fun planned, you may start to think about all the things you could be using that time for.

• Accountability Partners – If you’re not going to stick to your guns and make more time for yourself, ask someone who cares about you to hold you accountable. This could be your spouse or your best friend. Let them know that you want to start spending time doing things for yourself. Express your interests and then have them to check in on you. If you haven’t been accomplishing your goals, they can express the importance and even offer a solution like watching the kids for you.