A Balanced Day: Ideas

I've been thinking today, as I've been busy working around my home, about what a good day looks like.

I think it's a matter of balance. Of finding joy in the little things.

One of the things I've had to learn since my energy levels are less than my life, is how to make choices and how to balance things out. It's hard on me when I let myself focus on all the things I don't get accomplished, or the million small messes around the home that I don't have energy to do anything about. It's easy for me to feel rather depressed, and this is on top of the general depression I think I have on-going. This second feeling might be described as a blend of self pity and lassitude. I think it is this sort of depression that might be a sin. The pouting kind of depression.

It is easy to go there when I don't get what I want...or when I don't have the energy to do what I want. But really, as pathetic as I do sound on here much of the time, I try not to go there. (That might be the topic for a whole 'nother blog post: When is depression sinful and when is it a medical condition that is not a sin and needs help, and how to tell the difference.)

So, with the limited energies that I do have, I must learn to be a good steward. I have to plan my time, both to work and to rest.

So, here are my ideas about a balanced day:

A balanced day would include

prayer
scripture reading
reading some other good/uplifting/worthwhile book
well planned(intentional) meals and snacks with an eye towards nutrition and what my body requires
drinking enough water
taking my medications
exercise of some form. Ideally, three times a week working out (for me) at Curves, and a couple of longer walks thrown in there...preferably at the Nature Center or the Zoo. Unfortunately, as it currently stands, grocery shopping counts as a "Long walk" since on the days I do that, I have no energy for much of anything else.
creating some order somewhere in my home
creating something beautiful...whether working on some knitting, sewing, emobroidery, blogging, an encouraging word to someone else, focusing on a small space in my home and making it better...
keeping appointments on time
resting
being kind and polite to everyone I meet no matter how I feel, even my family-I do try.
And getting to bed at a decent hour. By eleven. That's hard for me, because sometimes it means hardly having any personal time at all. But I am discovering that if I DO go to bed early, I wake up earlier than the family, well rested, and ready to go the next day, and that can ONLY be a good thing...

So, there it is: My thoughts on a balanced day.

Today my balanced day: exercise at the zoo, Chapters from Isaiah and Luke, Morning Prayers, cutting out some nightgowns and marking the fronts to do embroidery work, cleaning up the kitchen and laying out meat for dinner, schooling/teaching the kids, doing some laundry, and folding towels...oh yeah...and blogging.

Now I'm off to that zoo trip and the library. Wish me luck with having energy to make dinner tonight, LOL. And check out the above links about "The Spoon Theory".

Comments

elizabeth said…
sounds like some good things here. I know with God you can figure out how to best handle the difficulties you are given. I see you doing this time and time again - even as tiring as you life is, I see you continuing to have intiative, to seek for answers and to make things better.

My love to you this day!