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Permission to Pause in Life

By Donna Kostiew

It’s the end of the workday and all you want to do when you get home is to throw your pajamas on, order takeout, and pour yourself a glass of wine. But that can seem impossible to do, right? Just because your work commitments end at 5 p.m. doesn’t mean that your other responsibilities do too. Cooking and caring for family, carting kiddos to sports practices, bringing work home to finish up … so many reasons to keep on keeping on. But when do we finally get a chance to disconnect and catch our breath?

Sleeping Doesn’t Count

There has to be a time, other than when we sleep, that we can disconnect from the demands of the day and pause. Here are some tips on how to find more time during your evenings so that you can hit that pause button before it’s time for bed.

  • Divvy up the chores – Hold everyone accountable in the home and divide the chores so that you aren’t still doing the wash at 10:30 at night. Challenge your children by choosing age-appropriate tasks around the house, and by that, I mean really challenge them. If your child can fold their own clothes, let them. If they can physically bring in the trash cans, add it to their chore list. The idea is to give you more time to breathe, so choose the chores that will actually let that happen.
  • Prepare for meals on Sunday – As soon as you come home from shopping, keep all of the ingredients out that you can prepare ahead of time for your week’s meals, and get it done in one sitting. Wash and cut the fruits and vegetables, portion lunch snacks into bags, and cook as much as you can for the week. Have your family help too, as this will save even more time.
  • Run errands when kids are occupied – There is an awful lot of time that can be utilized as parents wait for their children to finish sports practice. I often use it to run errands, shop, or get some work done on my laptop. That time is actually very precious to me because I can get a lot of my “running around” done, kid-free.
  • Pick an end-time for your day – More than likely, this isn’t going to be set in stone, but it is a good milestone to shoot for. Pick a reasonable time to end your day, and try to get everything done before that time … baths, work, dinner dishes … that way you can have a definitive time of relaxation to look forward to afterward.

Basically, the goal is to find some extra time each day and give yourself permission to pause before the demands of the next day come rearing their ugly heads down on you. Reconnect with yourself and your family by simply disconnecting from your busy life.

To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Sunset Hills, Mo.

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