Being a busy mom is not easy and many moms out there can relate to this. An 8-hour job to attend to, a child to look after, a house to tidy up, all of this can add up to making your days miserable and tiring.
Not only does it take away your peace of mind, and the time that you can put into your well-being, but it also limits socializing with others in the community to take your mind off of your busy routines. Simply put, all of the activities that can make a busy mom feel good, relaxed, and less stressed are gone, nada!
But this does not necessarily mean you cannot do anything about it. You sure can! You do not have to be a busy mom that works 24/7 anymore. You can become a supermom that is good at finding balance in life and can effectively manage work, home, and look after your child at the same time.
Wondering how you can become a supermom that is good at finding balance in life? Continue reading to find out how and why you need to find balance in your life.
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What Does It Mean To Find Balance In Your Life?
Finding balance is a term that you may hear coming from many different avenues. You hear it online and in facebook groups. You hear it in the church and in the office but what does it actually mean? In short, it is the ability to find harmony and balance amongst your many responsibilities and desires. Namely, work, family, and social life, all at the same time.
A huge part of finding balance in your life rests in the idea that you organize and prioritize your daily requirements, and plan your day in a way that you are able to efficiently and effectively execute the MUST DO’s so that you have time for the LIKE TO DO’s. Or, no DO’s at all.
For many of us, finding balance seems basically impossible, but by making a few adjustments to your mindsets and schedule you can absolutely find space to enjoy the harmony of the things in your life.
Balance is the ability to go about your day, manage work, home, create memories, and bond with your child simultaneously without having to push yourself to the limits or by putting a lot of energy into it.
Balance is all about flexibility. When you put into practice the steps I will share in this post and plan your days in such a way that your routines are flexible, you will find that you do not feel guilty if spontaneous events come up. In this way, if you miss or fail to do a task or meet a certain goal for the day, you should have a time slot in your schedule to do that missed task later.
True balance as a busy mom, leads to confidence in your time management skills, ability to stay calm, relaxed, and stress-free. You’ll enjoy days where the fog from mental fatigue and mom exhaustion never reach you and motherhood in general feels much more fulfilling!
Why Is Balance Important In Life?
The importance of balance in life can be understood from its effect on your personal health and well-being. The biggest advantage of having balance in your life is that you do not have to worry about being stressed, or feeling guilty due to not being able to give undivided attention to work and home.
The feelings of stress and guilt due to the lack of work-life balance will only lead to worsening your already busy days and leading to complications like brain fog where you’re unable to focus on any aspect of your life, which, quite frankly could get frustrating and demotivating. For this very reason, finding balance in life is important.
But that’s not all, it also plays a crucial role in your overall well-being and improving your personal health as well. This will allow you to stay calm throughout the day, bond with your child, get the most out of that business meeting, tidy up the house effortlessly.
In the long run, it will significantly impact your physical health and lower the risk of suffering from complications such as depression and anxiety. Besides, with a proper work-life balance, you can also find the time to socialize with other members of the community and your friends which is quite rare when you’re a busy mom.
Fun fact – with a balanced life, you will be able to sleep better at night and wake up with your energy bars filled to the top, thus say goodbye to dark circles.
Learn God’s intention for Time Stewardship
Embrace a rhythm of working and resting and get more done! Take our Purposeful Productivity Challenge and find more time for the daily tasks that matter and quickly begin creating routines that prioritize rest.
What Are The Signs Of A Balanced Life?
The benefits of a balanced life are endless and significantly rewarding. If you think you’ve managed to have a balance in life as a busy mom, you should be proud of yourself. Here are some signs that indicate whether you’ve done it correctly or if your routine still needs some fine-tuning.
- Your priorities are clear – Having clear priorities is one of the earliest signs of having balance in life for busy moms. With clear priorities, you know precisely what you have to do for the day, and you know what is more important to you in general.
- You know when to stop – With a balance in your life, you know when you need to stop or say no. But, this will only happen if your priorities are clear, thus knowing when to say no can indicate that you’ve managed to find a balance in life.
- You know how to adapt – Knowing when to adapt is also a fine indicator of finding a balance in life. When thinking of a balanced life, ideally one would assume coming home at 5 pm every day and assuming it would stay the same throughout their lives. But, that may simply not be the case every day. So, if things go south and you do not make it to your home by your usual 5 pm, stay relaxed. Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us and is something that you shouldn’t be worried about. Instead, if you know how to make up for the lost time and adapt to the temporary imbalance, go high five yourself because you’re one step closer to keeping a balance in your life.
- You chase after your fitness goals – The only thing that can help keep your energy levels filled irrespective of whether it is 9 am or 5 pm, is exercise. If you find yourself working out and meeting your fitness goals alongside managing work, home, and looking after your child, congratulations! You’ve managed to get one more step closer to finding balance in life.
- You have days for relaxing – Another sign that can hint at being good at finding balance in life is if you have days for relaxing in your schedule. Using vacation days or the weekend to blow off some steam, relax, and focus on yourself is also a sign of living a balanced life –after all, it is what keeps us sane.
- You have “Me time” in your schedule for any entertaining activity – Weekends and exercising may make you feel relaxed. But, the chances of exercising every day are slim and since the relaxing energy of the weekend may last for a day or two tops, you need to have a “me time” integrated into your everyday schedule. If you have this time slot in your schedule, it’s time to congratulate yourself again for successfully managing to have a balanced life.
How Do You Balance Your Life?
Knowing how to balance your life requires you to be able to recognize that things are out of order. In many cases, that sense of overwhelm and exhaustion is a clear indicator that you are living out of harmony. Here are some additional signs that could indicate whether it is the time to balance your life:
- You find it hard to sleep at night and/or keep waking up.
- You have become forgetful.
- You have a shortened temper.
- You constantly find yourself out of energy or feel drained.
- Find yourself getting sick easier.
- Feeling uneasy or uncomfortable.
If you find yourself relating to any of the above signs, don’t worry, we can get through this, together! Balance isn’t impossible. In fact, once you really understand what true balance actually looks like, you’ll find, actually balancing life is pretty simple to do.
Before we get into the steps for how you can balance your life, here is an insight into the key elements of a balanced life. These include,
- Internal Balance – Mind, heart, and health.
- External Balance – Work, social, family, fun.
To achieve balance you want to make sure to keep each of these aspects in mind, because one being even a little bit off the scale can lead to the feelings we mentioned before. Now lets jump into the four steps that can help you find more balance
1. Shift Your Mindset:
The first step in finding more balance in your life is to shift your mindset on what balance looks like and who you are! So often we feel like everything in our life is off balance. In so many cases, however, this feeling stems from the fact that we are holding on to expectations of what life is supposed to look like. We are often times holding on to a mental checklist of the way things should be based on our past experiences.
A shift in the expectations we have towards motherhood, marriage, and even our careers is vital to our living a life that feels much more balanced.
Now the second side to the coin of shifting your mindset is to understand that you may be holding on the limiting beliefs that keep you striving for things that you should be letting go of. Many of us moms suffer from limiting beliefs such as mom guilt and comparison.
These thought processes keep us from fully embracing who we are as mothers and instead keep us seeking validation based on who someone else is as a mom. This in turn has us trying to give our undivided attention to all the things at the same time.
This inevitably will cause us to mess up on something or burnout, which only cements truth to the limiting belief that got us in this place to begin with!
But, let’s be realistic here. We can not give our undivided attention to everything. Something has to give. And if we let something give, that is OKAY!
Shift your mindset from the do-it-all mom to a space of freedom where you reassess everything and say yes less frequently and set boundaries around your time and energy. Take a good look at your schedule and only add the tasks that you can occupy within your boundaries.
2. Simplify Life And Consider Minimizing
Life got a lot easier for me when I started embracing some practical minimalist techniques. Namely this thought: The more there is in the house, the more activities that we take on, the more I have to manage.
Once I fully embraced this idea (which isn’t a slight to anyone else in the home, it takes into account what you are able to control), I was able to feel like I could actually enjoy more, instead of just existing in it.
Start by asking yourself the following questions. 1) what matters the most to you? 2) What absolutely needs to be done? 3) What can either be delegated, given away, or postponed. This helps you in setting clear priorities and boundaries, and is hands down, one of the best way to balance your life.
3. Incorporate More Self-Care Into Your Lifestyle
Incorporating self-care into your lifestyle will help you deal with the stress caused by routine multi-tasking. Not only does multi-tasking build up stress, but it also affects your productivity. Having a self-care checklist can help you to be intentional about schedules and routines that are life-bringing and help you cultivate a lifestyle of calm.
Self-care is the ability to assess and improve your physical, mental, and emotional health. Unfortunately, many people take self-care for granted and forget about how beneficial it can be. Ask yourself these questions.
- Are you getting enough sleep?
- Is your diet healthy?
- Are you meeting your fitness goals?
- Are you socializing with your friends and in the community well?
- Are you doing the activities that you love and bring you peace?
- Are you positively dealing with your emotions?
If you are not satisfied with your answers, take the hint and start incorporating more self-care into your lifestyle. This will not only allow you to find balance in your life, but also promote happiness, better spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional health.
4. Mindfully Reassess Often
Being a busy mom and finding balance can seem like an impossible task at times. This is why when it comes to achieving balance and maintaining it, you want to be sure that you are reassessing your needs consistently.
Each of us has several different self-care needs and they ebb and flow as we go through life. We also have differing rest requirements. Reassessing is reminding yourself that like a scale, when you are trying to have a more balanced life it requires a give and take. In some instances certain aspects of life will be in the forefront of your mind, this doesn’t mean you are neglecting anything, but you are conserving and focusing your energy on the things that matter most in the moment.
Finding Balance isn’t impossible
Finding balance isn’t impossible, even as a busy working mom. You can come to a space in living where each part of your life works in harmony, but this does require a bit of a mindset shift and understanding that balance feels like you are walking a tightrope with three full plates. Balance should feel like walking on flat ground with one well rounded plate. It should be like breathing and it should make you feel free!