Be gentle on yourself

Do you sometimes have periods when you feel a little less able to handle the normal'ness of life.  When normally you can exist satisfactorily (notice I didn't say "happily" here) amongst the racing, the priorities, the homework, the exercise, the work, the nagging, the arguments, the games of handball, the washing folding, the meal planning, the meal preparing, the meal cleaning upping and that a sit down at the end of a day with a choccy biccy and half a TV programme are enough.  Before the cycle starts again the next day.

But do you sometimes have times when you can't cope as well.  When your voice gets raised more than normal, when you huff and puff a little more than you should, when you don't exercise as much as what you could.  When you just feel a little annoyed that life is kind of like this?  And that you enviously think of others who can sit down with the 6 pm news, or  laugh a little more?

This has been a slow burn for me.  No outback epiphany.  No dramatic drama.  Just a slow dawn of realisation.

Now I won't be a victim, nor lazy.  And if somethings not right on my patch then it's up to me to sort it. To do a little analysis.  And find a solution.

My calm times of the day are when I work, quietly, contentedly, my brain overflowing with ideas and things to do.  I think of a pipeline of "stuff to do/read/write about", and it's always chokker block. It's my peaceful time.  And then my babies and their madness and chaos come home, and things start to unravel a little.  This is my transition moment, when I need to get my Personal A game on.  When I need to look after myself and be gentle on myself so I can be how I need to be.

It's working a treat.  Quietly to myself I call it Project Me.  It's when I am my priority.  If I am calm and at peace, then life is calm and at peace.  And lordy, even homework gets done with only some gentle murmurs of dissent.  It's when my boxes are ticked - and the boxes aren't things like "shirts ironed - tick", or "dunnies cleaned - tick", but more like being prepared, less clutter, regular exercise, more interesting reading, more career productivity, more loving ....

It's an interesting exercise in self awareness and control for me.  And for someone who rattles through life a bit, it couldn't have come at a better time.

What do you do to help you deal with life when you're not feeling like you can?

What's in your Project Me boxes?