Imagine with me for a minute that your day starts out like this Mom’s:
Your blessing of a child is frustrated, “Mom, I can’t find my track shoes. Today is the track meet! Can you please help me?” It takes you two seconds to find the first one and 10 minutes to find the other one. As you rush to finish getting ready for work, your husband comes to tell you bye. “Honey, could you pick up my dry cleaning on the way home? Please don’t forget, I need it for tomorrow.” “Of course,” you reply as you add it to your mental list in RED letters and say a quick prayer, “Lord, please don’t let me forget!” You finally get out the door with no time to spare. No Starbucks today, and you really need coffee. On the way to the office you go over your top priorities for the day and take a deep breath. It is Thursday…tomorrow is Friday…then the weekend (Happy Dance). As you approach the office door, you see your boss is already there and seems to be in a panic. You walk in cautiously and he turns to you, “Oh good your here!” You soon find out that the project that wasn’t due until next week is due tomorrow. Someone had a miscommunication and it is this Friday not next. And who suffers…. you do! It’s not your fault but the work load falls to you. You roll up your sleeves and get to work. You end up having to work late but you get it done and head home. As you pull into the driveway you remember the dry cleaning. By the time you get to the garage the tears start to fall. You have given all you have and now your just empty…
Okay, so maybe your day isn’t exactly like this Mom’s, but you get the picture. We all face days like this and get overwhelmed with everything we must do. We give, and give, and give until there is nothing left. We become dry and empty.
I had a friend who used to tell me, “Your pitcher is getting empty. Come on, let’s go get our nails done.” She saw that I wasn’t taking any time for myself. My first thought was no I don’t have time for that. But I soon realized that I was happier, more energetic, and just felt better if I just spent a little time each week on ME.
Take some time this week to do something that you enjoy. Here are some ideas to get you thinking:
- Get up early and have some alone time to pray or read
- Call up a friend and have coffee or go to a movie
- Make an appointment to get your hair or nails done
- Take a bubble bath
- Go to the library and pick out a book
- Go for a walk
- Sign up for a yoga class