Pause and rest without feeling guilty

Welcome to #005.

It is all fun and games until winter hits, the kids are home. Nevertheless, you are still showing up.

Last week was crazy for me, I hope that it wasn’t the case for you. Here in Australia, we are in winter, which means one thing, sickness and kids at home all day every day. We suddenly had to work from home with a toddler, arranging meetings and meal times. Fun times!

By now I would like to think I have it all sorted, after all, I started to teach myself how to code with a 10-month-old. Many sicknesses later, here I am again, in the same situation. Having to code with a toddler, oh the good old days. However, this situation is not the same. I have a full-time job, meetings, and tasks to complete ( and oh boy this week’s tasks were challenging). Not to mention that I am not as young and energised.

My husband and I have a good strategy to help each other whilst we attend to our tasks. However even though everything seems working well, there is a sense of messiness and craziness. I am optimising my day as much as possible, but I am exhausted, and I didn’t complete as many tasks as I hope I would have.

Letting go of the guilt of not being as productive as you usually are when “something happens” by being kind to yourself.

In my case it was sickness. In your case, it could be something else. But the guilt of not progressing as quickly as you normally do lingers around like a heavy weight you carry with you. Now, your confidence is low and you are not sure if you can manage or if you are “made for this”. 

I finished my work week Friday, demotivated. But then I stopped to realise everything I did, which was a lot, not perfectly but it got done. I showed up and I should give myself credit for it. To get rid of the feeling, I allowed myself to have fun, rest, and to even binge Black Mirror on Friday night. On Saturday morning, I listened to music and I did absolutely nothing (well that is a lie, I still did mum things but you get me). It felt so good!

Now a new week starts tomorrow. It is a new opportunity to start again. This will happen again. If it is not sickness, it might be something else, either that I am feeling depleted or I just simply don’t want to do anything but rest. Which is ok.

We don’t only make progress by completing tasks, we also make progress when we allow ourselves to stop, rest, have fun and re-energise.

Each day is different, each week is different, give yourself permission to fail, and be kind to yourself for trying!

Now back at you, what do you do to allow yourself to pause? Let me know by replying to this email, I would love to know.