Making time for yourself at any age can be difficult but especially during those “sandwich years”, you know when your busy taking care of your children (or grandchildren) and your parents. As baby boomers age this scenario is becoming increasingly popular. How is it possible to work a full time job, take care of all of your family responsibilities and still have time to do the things you enjoy?! Let me share some tips on how to make this possible.
• Start or end your day doing something you love. Whether that’s reading a book, taking a bubble bath, watching T.V. or surfing the web make sure you carve out those few minutes to do what you enjoy. This gives you something to look forward to and doing it at the beginning or end of the day makes it easier to follow through on.
• Ask for help. Whether it is from a family member, neighbor or co-worker it’s important that you quit trying to be super man (or woman) by doing everything yourself. Completing chores or projects with a loved one not only cuts the time needed to complete the chores substantially, it also gives you an opportunity to spend quality time together.
• Get some exercise. Exercising is a great way to relieve stress; it also produces hormones that positively affect mood. Of course, another benefit to exercise is increased energy to power through and complete all the tasks the need to be done on any given day.