Self-Care Friday: Recruiting Help

I want to share a short story that will inspire you to take better care of yourself, even if you have to get creative in order to make it happen.

There was once a woman who was a mother to four teenagers. This woman worked full-time in addition to keeping the house clean and everything else that goes with keeping up a household. She felt at times she didn’t even have enough time to think, let alone take time for self-care.

Just when the mother didn’t think she could take one more step, she decided to get creative in order to free up a little time for herself. The woman's children always needed money, and she always needed more time in the day. This led her to come up with a plan that would work out for everyone involved.

The women created a chore list. This is how it works—Every morning she made a list of all that needed to be done that day. She made the list similar to the way you would write out a grocery list. Next to each chore, she put a value of either 50 cents or a dollar. Then, she would post it on the refrigerator. The kids knew that if they needed money for an upcoming dance or just a movie they wanted to see, they could put their name next to the chores they chose to do in order to make some money.

The mother felt this chore list created a win/win situation, because she was already handing out money for movies and such anyway.On a good day, the list would be complete when she arrived home from work. Having to focus less on chores enabled the woman to enjoy her free time with a long candle lit bath or maybe just a quick, much-needed nap.

Life can give us challenges, and life can be exactly what we create. We don't have to sit back and look at our life as if we have to live with our current realities. Instead, we have the power to change our lives even if it’s to just tweak it a little. It's important to make necessary changes that enable us to take a minute to care for ourselves. We can be happier if we take a minute to tag ourselves out of the race to reboot.

If you're looking for more way to engage in self care activities, feel free to visit our Growing Pains page.