Slow Down!

I've been relaxing lately.  Once May ended, my crazy, hectic and ridiculous schedule slowed down significantly.  For the past week, I've barely worked at all, and let me tell you, I am having trouble figuring out what on earth to do with myself!  So, I've actually done a whole lot of nothing.  Hah, imagine that.  Me, doing nothing!  It's been very...strange.

The biggest thing I struggle with when I'm not running around like crazy, is guilt for not running around like crazy.  When I sit down and really hear myself saying that, I sounds kind of ridiculous.  I have been working like a mad woman for the past...um...forever.  Why shouldn't I want a break?  Why should I feel guilty about sitting around in my pjs for a day or two?  The truth is that I shouldn't, but I do.  We are conditioned to work, work, work, and when there is no work to do, we make work.  As a mother, wife, caregiver, and woman, I have grown up believing that my life will always be busy, and that if I'm not busy, I'm wasting my time.  This was never overtly taught to me, but I learned it nonetheless.  I'm sure you can relate!

What I need to work on is accepting this slowing down.  I need to chill out.  Seriously.  My insanely busy life is not gone for good, so I need to soak up the rest while I can.  And why shouldn't I?  Do I not deserve to take it easy sometimes?  Heck yes.  I am on 24/7, and it's okay to take a break.  In fact, achieving balance requires taking breaks once in a while.  If we mothers (and other species) don't take a break once in a while, we suffer, as do the people around us.  When we can't de-stress, the stress gets the best of us.  When we are so tired that our motions become rote and we don't remember how we got where we went, we need to stop, drop, and sleep.  So it's okay that I stayed in my pjs until I absolutely had to leave the house this week.  It's okay that I didn't get out of bed at the crack of seven any day this week.  I needed it.  It's okay that I didn't sanitize my sinks, counters, floors, door knobs, toilets, railings, table, chairs, fridge, stove and etc every single day, because I didn't have to.  I keep telling myself that it's okay, but that little part of me keeps gnawing away, saying be busy, be busy, be busy.  That part of me needs to shut up. 

Does anyone else out there struggle with the obsessive need to be busy?  Do you feel guilty when you stop?  Reality check everyone.  We need to take some time here and there just to do nothing.  And, we need to be okay with that.  It's important!  How are you going to relax this week?