Ever felt like you are drowning in your schedule?
Your life feels like a series drive thru’s and box dinners, you’re exhausted by the afternoon and need a caffeine or sugar pick me up to keep you from crashing, your workouts, sleep, journal or creativity time are the first things on the chopping block when something else is more important, you live on auto-pilot waiting for the weekend, and the people you are closest to in your life don’t really know you as anything other than tired, busy and checked out.
This hit me big time when I was teaching high school with two little kids in before-school care and I’d drop them off at daycare by 6:20am, spend the day teaching 6 classes with an 18 minute lunch, try and get the tasks for work done, race home by 4:20, get the kids off the bus, do homework, figure out what’s for dinner, make dinner, run errands, and crash (literally falling asleep at the dinner table some days), trying to muster up the energy to take a shower and then go to sleep.
Rarely did my family leave the house without a packaged meal and snacks for the day.
Rarely did I have time or energy to get a workout in.
Rarely did I spend even just 15 minutes one on one being fully present with my husband or kids.
Rarely did I check my blood sugar.
Rarely did I create the meals for dinner that balanced my blood sugar and instead reached for comfort foods that put a band-aid on my stressed out life.
I felt ashamed for not taking care of my body. I felt ashamed for not truly knowing my kids. I felt ashamed for feeling exhausted every day. I felt ashamed for always feeling two steps behind in my life.
The more I gave to everyone and everything else, the less of me there was.
It may sound crazy but I couldn’t imagine that my life could be any different but I also wondered how much more could I do?
I couldn’t imagine that I had choices.
I was actually actively choosing to drown in my own schedule because I thought it would get me the love and approval I wanted from the outside world.
I felt like because I had gotten my college degree, then I was smart.
I felt like because I gave birth to my kids, that made me a mother.
I felt like because I filled up my schedule, that meant I was important.
And then through my own transformation, I decided to walk away from it all…. the promised paycheck, the routine, the foods that were dragging me and my family down, the ridiculously early mornings, the various ways I was putting my mindfulness and body last, the energy I was giving as a lesser version of myself and the excuses.
I made the commitment to myself and my young daughters who were watching me and it’s been the best decision I’ve ever made.
Where are you saying yes and where are you saying no in your schedule? What feels constricting and what feels expansive? What makes you feel alive, excited, purposeful that you continually gets bumped in the clutter of your day? Where does time “slip” away scrolling social media, watching TV or jumping all over from task to task instead of lumping tasks together? What would it feel like to design and live everyday in your ideal schedule?
What would it feel like to honor your yes’s and your no’s, live your ideal schedule, step into your power and truly live your purpose??
Click here for more information on how I help women just like you stop drowning in their own lives and create the balance, the power and the freedom they deserve.
Xoxo,
Christy