12 years back when I delivered my first child, I went into postpartum depression and lost my work-life balance. I know exactly how it feels to lose balance and how to regain it. I have developed a purpose to make women more aware about symptoms of losing work-life balance and providing solutions that worked for me.Always put yourself first and then only you can take care of your family and work. I am thankful to Cisco for providing me flexibility to work from home.
Here are the symptoms of loosing work life balance from my past experience
- When you have too much guilt – I am not good mom, I am not good wife, I am not good employee and I am fit for nothing.
- When you are worrying too much – What will happen if I am not able to do this or that. You have fear of failure. You feel like you are not performing well. You worry what others are thinking about me ?
- When you feel tired and lack of energy- You have feeling ” I have to” instead of ” I want to” and you are physically exhausted.
- When you think you have less time and more things to do and you are always rushing- Overwhelmed.
- When you are not sleeping well or sleeping less.
Here are the solutions for every situation listed above
- To remove guilt- Have realistic expectation from yourself. Give pat on your back saying you are wonderful and managing things nicely. Don’t try to be super woman and try to do every thing yourself. Take help from others in time of need. Don’t treat yourself like a machine. We are human being and not human doing.We are perfectly imperfect!
- Worrying will not make things better then why to worry. Do I control over situation or person? What can I do better instead of worrying ? Train your mind to find solution.
- Recharge yourself by taking not only physical break but mental break also. After every hour, take 1 min break and remind yourself that you are very calm and peaceful. You are the most lucky person and count your blessing. Do this exercise as well as physical exercise regularly. If you are not healthy you can’t take care of your work or family. Once you lose health, it is very hard to come back to same state as before. Listen to your body, if you don’t your body will tell you soon.
- You have only 24 hours in a day and you know you will not have more hours so prioritize your tasks. Instead of getting overwhelmed, take a pause and talk to yourself and ask what is more important to you in current situation. Make conscious decision and feel happy about it. Learn to say “No”. Know you capacity and capability. If you don’t have strength to run then walk, don’t look at others and compare. Everyone has their own priorities.Do what you love to do and which makes you feel better. Have some hobbies.
- 6-8 Hours of sleep is must. Negativity comes to us because of not sleeping well or sleeping less . If body is not resting well, mind can’t function well. We do put our computer to sleep but it is very very important to put our mind to sleep before going to bed. Clean your mind before going to bed. If you have many thoughts in your mind before going to bed, you can’t have sound sleep. So take time to resolve you issues/concerns/fears/questions before going to bed so that when you are waking up next morning you feel energized. Start your day with one positive thought and end with gratitude.
Very nicely and honestly written Punam.Many people today are too busy making a living that they don’t have time to make a life. We can not expect to continue down the same path and get the authentic changes we really want in our life. Where we go in life is up to us? Where we go with our work/life balance should be by choice not chance. As mother of two little ones, I keep reminding myself your top 5 tips.Thanks for sharing them with us.
Very nicely categorized and written Punam!!
well written Ms Punam.