Our daily lives are dominated by a long list of obligations, and often these obligations touch on the different spheres of our lives.
Professionally we must commit daily to our different places of work, there are deadlines that one must meet, there are submissions that need to be done and there are meetings that must be conducted.
As a companion or friend, one must expand themself and address the needs of a friend or companion, one must have a listening ear, one must be sympathetic, one must be empathetic, one must be understanding and accommodating. All these things are emotionally demanding, they require one to be present in the moment.
As a member of family, one has tons and tons of responsibility and expectations, one is expected to be loving caring, supportive, present, understanding. After a long day one must partake in meaningful conversations, one must be a problem solver, a planner, a participant within the family structure, again one has to be present.
With all these obligations and expectations, are you taking care of yourself? Are you putting aside time to address the needs that you have? How do you refill your mental void? How do you address your tiredness? How do you meet your innermost desires and needs? How do you fulfil yourself so that there is something left?
Do not neglect you, take the time learn yourself, take the time to learn what you need. It is so easy to overlook these things without considering how important they are. Not taking care of yourself can have devastating consequences to you as person, it can lead to feelings of being unfulfilled, feelings of unexplained sadness, feeling of doubt, feelings of being unsatisfied, feelings of depression and even thoughts of suicide.
Put time aside for yourself, develop yourself, pamper yourself, love yourself. Don’t give what you do not have!
Yeah, well a question is, do I have time to do that? Usually, every single moment is filled up with obligations, but not much time for self-reflection on how useful are all those things I do for myself.
With the time I had to drop so many things in order to stay balanced and on track with the things that matter, starting with my family.
No. These things are spontaneous at best and usually, I incorporate them into a time with other members of my family. Ther is no other way.
It is true that with all the daily obligations time is in short supply. One moment one is waking up and then the next moment one is fitting in the pajamas and those few seconds once one jumps into bed with a deep sigh one is thinking what a day!
I found that managing one's time does help, I have adopted the philosophy of waking up two hours earlier in the morning. I spend this time on myself, reading, exercising and listening to motivational content, planning future projects. To add to this, my wife and I each have self care days once a month, during this time just take time to appreciate yourself, usually we do self spas, home facials, going for a favorite treat in my case waffle and ice cream, going for a drive alone, going for a walk, going on a date by yourself to watch a movie or whatever that replenishes you.
True talk bro, those family list got me imagining life as a family man for a moment, takes a lot to be present to be supporting. All you mentioned should be what a happy family should entail and having to take care of oneself you be on top of the list as well.
That is so true, taking care of yourself also means that you are giving the best version of yourself to the people that give your life meaning.