I found a good reminder for myself. Something that I was doing that I shared with my online world a few years ago that maybe will help you, too.
Here’s the context:
I was working part time, teaching band. The schedule was brutal, many of the classes were brutal, and there was very little professional fulfillment.
I was taking Anatomy and Physiology online at the same time. Super-interesting, but also brutal.
And parenting a 5-year-old.
That semester, The Climbing Daddy (who was not yet my husband) and I were also house-hunting and ending up buying (we closed in December, shortly after finals, in the midst of concert season). Because, y’know, there wasn’t already enough going on.
But I was using Duo Lingo, a language-learning app, and doing a bit each day, among other things, and apparently, it helped the overwhelm.
This is what I wrote:
So there’s work, which is … less than amazing.
There’s A&P, which is interesting but sucking out whatever life blood work leaves.
Meal planning and prep has gone to hell.
Exercise is still happening—almost exclusively running and climbing—but not as frequently as I’d like.
But I’ve done a little bit of Spanish every day for almost three months, and I’ve recently started playing my uke most days just for 5-10 minutes (F is learning, too, so we play together), and these things help me feel a little bit like I have free time. Which makes everything else a little more bearable.
In conversation surrounding this, I mentioned that our eating was still relatively healthy, just more pre-made foods which I wasn’t excited about, partially because of quality, and partially because it was causing a lot more trash.
But the point is—if you’re feeling like you’re at your limit, take 10 or 20 minutes and do something you enjoy. It’s not that much time, you can totally find it some days, even if not daily, and it will help your mental game.
And it’s nearly all a mental game, isn’t it?