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Assessing your life balance.
Life balance: Use your notebook to keep a record of how you spend your time for a complete week. You will soon see if you are leaving any time for your own needs. Here is an example of a day from a working parent’s
notebook:
07.30 get up, shower, breakfast, make packed lunches, drop kids at school,
09.15 late to work again, better skip lunch,
17.30 leave work, pick up shopping, take oldest child to activity,
19.00 eat with partner and kids, my turn to wash up,
20.00 my turn to put kids to bed, usual arguments,
21.00 check emails, phone childminder re school holidays, organize, Badminton Club fixture list, online banking, phone Mum, mend broken door in kitchen,
23.00 bed,
Not much time for self in there. Some days just are very busy of course, but if the whole diary was like this, then this person would need to think things through and make changes. How hard it would be if they were also struggling with an Anxiety disorder, and yet this is exactly what
many people are having to do.
In the example above, the following changes might be possible even on
this busy day:
- Show the children how to make their own lunch, under supervision,
leaving more time for the journey to school and work. Then it won’t
be necessary to skip lunch, and the lunch break can become a small
window of rest in the busy day. - Work out why bedtime causes arguments, and try to make it more
enjoyable. - Ask someone else to take over the fixture list.
You may still feel that you haven’t really got time for yourself, but as a
part of your recovery from Anxiety you need to find some time every day
for yourself. It can be something as simple as a relaxing bath, watching
your favourite TV programme or reading a magazine. This is just as
important as all the other aspects of recovery, so don’t skimp on it.
