Journal Entry #28: Are You Rushing Through Life?

Feeling overwhelmed with taking the kids to swimming lessons, finishing deadlines at work, or trying to get to your baseball game just in time? Do you have to tell your kids that you can’t make it to their birthday party because you work shift work? Are you so busy that you’ve broken the promise to yourself that you would eat healthier this year, but you keep ordering from Skip?

 Have no fear, my friend. I have some suggestions to help you take your lifestyle from crazy town to mindfully peaceful. You know that you’re always going to get tough love from me. YOU make your schedule so YOU can change it. Read that again. 

I encourage you to write down everything that you are doing. Next, read the list and cross off the ones you don’t even like doing anymore. Why not sit down as a family to listen to how everyone feels? What do you have to prove? You haven’t failed if you stop doing actions that no longer give you joy. This will also save you money as well as your sanity. 

Our granddaughter was in music and dance. At four years old she told Mommy, “I don’t like to go to music anymore.” Ask your kids what they don’t want to do. Let people be who they are. Not the fantasy version that you have in your head. If they stop piano lessons, you will have more time with them. They will feel heard and it might even bring you closer together because you have just honoured the person they want to be. 

Once you have crossed off what activities the whole family doesn’t want to do as a unit, now you can look at how much more time you have. I recommend not filling your calendar where you have freed up time for a month or two. As a family or couple, discuss how much you’re enjoying gaps of space where you’re just resting and relaxing, or if you are ready to try something new. Remember that if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten!

 

Stephanie Preston creates powerful, humorous videos on managing bipolar disorder symptoms. She is a Social Service Worker, Health Care Aide and suffers from severe bipolar depression herself. She is the proud wife of St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston, loves being a grandma and is Crossfit obsessed. Follow her at www.tiktok.com/@bipolaronthebrain and www.facebook.com/bipolaronthebrain.