Remembering To Take Care of You

I just realized at the end of last week that it had been ages since I’d written an honest talk post and I was most definitely overdue, so here goes…

As you know, the past few months have been some of the busiest and toughest on me from a work perspective. I’m happy to say that I’ve passed that hump, but my mind and body haven’t caught quite up yet and I don’t think I fully realized that till a little incident happened last week and all of those pent up emotions came pouring out. Literally.

It started when I got home from dinner after the Kendra Scott event and I had a little accident with Oliver. I’ll leave out the details, but essentially his face smashed into mine and resulted in a deep cut inside my mouth and a fat lip — oh and a lot of pain. There were also tears, lots of tears — even after the initial pain was gone they just kept flowing and I realized just how mentally and physically exhausted I was. Frankly it felt good to just let it out. Have you ever done that? Doesn’t it make you feel better?!

It was also the wake up call I think I’d been waiting for. I’ve been wearing myself thin and realized that I need to make some major changes to find more balance in my life and take care of myself both physically and mentally. Sometimes I think taking care of our own health is the hardest. It’s so easy to ignore the signs that are telling you to slow down and take a break, and it’s definitely time I start making that a priority.

I started down this career path because I wanted to pick my own projects and create my own schedule, but the past few months have been the opposite. I’ve felt completely out of control and that’s caused some resentment towards my day job. It didn’t help that the imbalance in my work life flowed over into my personal life. I know I haven’t been as good of a friend/daughter/sister/wife as I wished I could be and that’s not who I want to be and not who I believe I truly am as a person. Ugh. Can someone tell me how the heck I got here?

Yes, my business is super important to me, but when it comes at the price of my sanity and my relationships, it’s not okay. I want to be done with work at 6 so I can cook dinner and eat with Rob in a tidy house (I’ll save that struggle for another day). I want to have the time to talk to my family on the phone and catch up with friends that I haven’t seen in a long time. I also want to feel well-rested enough to actually enjoy all these things too. Is that too much to ask? I don’t think so, but formulating a plan to readjust my daily life is on the top of my to-do list this week.

When I think about the big picture, a few client mishaps aren’t going to be the things I look back at and remember about my life, but rather the friends and family surrounding me and the memories made with them.

Have you ever hit a wall like this where everything felt like it was crashing down, but then it turned out to be just the thing you needed? If so, I’m sorry — it sucks. But to end on a positive note, hitting a wall can help us make life-changing decisions that lead to more happiness in the long run! So I guess I should really be thanking Oliver for that painful smack in the face. It hurt terribly, but was the ’slap in the face’ I needed to wake up and realize what’s important to me and to take better care of my mind and body.