Reflecting on Wellbeing...

It always amuses me how the more we try and focus on personal wellbeing, because we know that it makes all the difference....the busier our lives become.  Lately I have been feeling quite overwhelmed trying to get used to the new routines of my new role, balancing this with the new study routines and level of commitment as well as trying to honour my responsibilities as Mum, wife and in other areas of my life, at church and with the league club.  Every time I look at my calendar, I feel the stress rising.


It's the little things that make all the difference and as I consider wellbeing goals for myself as a professional, I start with the obvious:

• Lunches - I make my kids lunches everyday but often don't pack anything for myself and then I often skip breakfast trying to get out the door and then... I buy junk because I am starving after getting to work, doing some work and before I know it, it's 2 or 3 in the afternoon.  One of my wellbeing goals is to eat breakfast daily and take a packed lunch to work.  This will also help my finances too if I don't buy food at the shops near the office.
• Sleep - As a busy working mum who is studying, I often am up at night doing the housework that I haven't had a chance to do during the day when I'm working and this impacts on me being able to go to sleep at a reasonable hour.  It is a vicious cycle....if I left the housework, then I'd be stressed out in the morning trying to find clean school uniforms for the kids and trying to pack lunches when things aren't tidy in the kitchen.  With all of this, sometimes you've gotta give yourself a break so part of my goal is not worrying about the state of my house as much as this isn't the top of my priority list, the other thing that I can do is get my family to support with these things and lighten the load.  I will sacrifice TV viewing to be able to do all my jobs and get to bed at a reasonable hour. 
• Exercise - a bit of a foreign concept for me but something that I want to be able to achieve.  This is always the first thing I find an excuse for.  I started a few weeks ago, getting up early and taking the dog for a walk but this was short-lived as things picked up and my sleep was impacted, so I will start with a goal of taking the dog of a 45 minute walk in the morning for 3 mornings a week.
• Spiritual - this area of my wellbeing is reasonably okay.  I am committed to attending my weekly women's celebration group where we reflect on life as women.  I also am involved in my church which I find very fulfilling.  One new area that I have enjoyed is being able to sing in my car as I travel to and from appointments in my new role.  This is the first time I have worked in a job where there has been a bit of travel time.  I have found this enables me time and space to process, reflect and prepare my head for what is required of me next and also means when I arrive home after a long day, I'm ready to put on my wife / mum hat and leave the worries of my work behind me until the next day.  Of course, this will take some discipline to maintain.
• Family - it's exciting this year with lots happening in my wider family and in my little family too.  I am enjoying having a bit of flexibility with hours of work and study days which have meant that I have been able to take my daughter to school visits prior to her starting school in term 2 and have been able to drop my son off to his new school and support his transition there.  One area that I would like to do better would be to make time for myself and my husband to go out for an evening, maybe once every two weeks.  He is a very supportive man but I don't want to put too much pressure on him as he is a busy man too.  He has had to change his routine a bit this year to make it work and he is still adjusting to picking up all the kids and doing the after school sports trainings, homework, dinner prep routines.

Now that I have this all processed, I think I'm ready to write my wellbeing goals.  I bet everyone is feeling a bit like me in the description above doing this course and I'm interested to see how everyone else is coping.  I have my first whānu group meeting next week so it will be good to catchup with the other Christchurch people doing this.