Better Living Series-Part 2: Choosing Refreshment in the Race

I thought I had found new purpose as a stay-at-home wife. It seemed that sharing my home with others would indeed give homemaking a new purpose. But I wasn’t naive: it would require more energy than I was accustomed to giving.

Those of us who struggle with low energy know how it goes! Too much giving only leads to burnout. So how can we ensure this doesn’t happen?

 

Why Refreshment Is Important

The homemaker lifestyle requires something of us. It takes something from you and I! And in the flow of life, we need to remember that we don’t have inexhaustible sources of physical and emotional energy.

We must ask the questions: do we know what drains us? What recharges us? Enables us to keep going?

 

Making a Personal List

I’d encourage you to sit down and scribble out a list of things that refresh and recharge you.

Take a piece of paper and break it into the three categories, as listed below. Beside each record your ‘refreshers.’

HOME: What makes you feel good about your home? Like you’re doing a stellar job of managing it?

RELATIONAL: What do you crave in your relationship with God? People? How and where do you best connect with others?

PERSONAL: How are you wired as a person? What makes you feel alive? Refreshed? Gives you a quick breather from the mad rush of life?

Add to the list throughout your day as more ideas come to mind.

 

Implementing Fillers Into Our Lives

After you’ve accumulated a long list, let’s take a look at the ‘personal’ category (we’ll come back to the rest later).

Choose one small ‘refresher’ that you can add to your week!

Maybe it’s taking 5 minutes to step outside, feel the sun and listen to the birds? Cracking open that book you’ve been dying to read? Making the kids play in their room so you can have some ‘quiet?!’

Start forming the habit of, once a week, implementing some “you time.”

Also try to implement a ‘big’ filler once every 6-8 weeks. Make it something special, that you wouldn’t normally do!

 

But It Makes Me Feel Selfish…

At this point, some of us may be wrestling with feelings of selfishness. We’ve always believed in putting the needs of our home and family first! This…this idea doesn’t sit well with us.

Please know that I don’t condone selfishness. Nor do I wish to encourage laziness, indulgence or neglect.

No.

It’s just this: too many homemakers are living life in a half-starved state. Too often we carry the mindset that giving our life’s breath for family and home is a good and honorable thing to do.

We forget we are only human, that we have limitations and can’t do it all. If we push ourselves too hard, denying ourselves for too long, we will pay for it. As will our home and the people we love. Need I say anything more?

I suggest that you begin carving out a small place for your own needs in your home, schedule and daily activities.

As a homemaker, I want to run well so I can give (and live) up to my full potential. How about you?

Stay tuned for part 3 where we talk about the reality of ‘drains’ in our lives. We’ll also discuss how we can eliminate some of them. Keep your list handy because we’ll be adding to it!