Tell me how you woosah

***The following video is intended to help you relax, chillax, if you will. Repeat after me: woosah, woosah. Remember your pressure points.

Last week I read a google+ question directed to moms who need a bit of relaxation, honestly, just 5 or 10 minutes away. You may say "what can 5 minutes do, that's not enough time to get relaxed!"

Well, recall my post on the gazillion why questions I get from Hummingbird (like right now, as I type, she's standing here asking me when is breakfast gonna be ready!!!!!). So, yeah, 2 minutes will give you a quick mind refresh.

Anyway, this mom asked how do other moms find balance and time for themselves. It can become overwhelming caring for everyone else and not your own self. Think about it. What if, on a particular day, you don't feel so well. Will the world stop, will the clock stop ticking? Sure, you may have support in place, but it wouldn't be the same. Also, would you let your support take care of all the things that need to be taken care of?

Why do we, as women/wives/moms/all other female roles, find it hard to take care of ourselves? When I say "take care of ourselves", I mean in all ways, physically, emotionally, spiritually.

I used to struggle with this. Long ago, in a far away land, I was in a bad spot in my life. I had unhappiness and no joy. During that time, I tried to force work/life balance. I did not know how to carve out minutes for myself. That all came to a crashing halt and I am so thankful it did. That crash allowed me to finally discover myself. One of my discoveries was that I had no interests, no hobbies, nothing. I was merely existing. As the therapist asked me the questions, I felt like there was a void inside of me. But, also at that moment, I knew I had work to do. And that's what I did, went to work on the road to discovery. Now, don't let my typed words here make you think it was easy. Plenty of crying, doubt, fear, and a mixed bag of other emotions ran rampant in my life during that time. But, I knew I didn't want to stay there.

I learned how to put myself in time out, be it, when the kids were in bed or awake watching their favorite tv shows.

Ok, don't get me wrong again, I have not perfected this yet! But here are a few ways I put myself in time out:

• Spend 10-15 minutes in my closet, morning or evening, reading, praying, learning how to meditate (check out this freebie I found, it offers free guided meditations.) When I first heard of meditation, I thought it was something weird but over the years, I've grown and learned. MonkeyMan keeps telling me to concentrate on my breathing, but how many of you know that's it's tough to do that when you are "trained" to concentrate on so many other things? My struggle right now with meditation, trying to quiet my mind. 
• Torturing myself Working out at the gym. I work through my lunch at work so that I can leave an hour early. This allows me to get to the gym before picking up Hummingbird. I found a gym that's 5 minutes away from her karate school. Working up a sweat allows me to sweat out the crap from the work day. For me, the gym is a place of regaining my thoughts, helping me to center myself. Burning some calories is just a great by-product of all that. Working out in the afternoon/evening works for me because it fits our schedule and it chills me out for the rest of the evening. 
• Get in wannabe crafter mode. Yes, I am a Pinterest lover! Honestly, just surfing Pinterest relaxes me. I surf on my laptop, my tablet, and my phone. Crazy, I know, but it's provided snippets of relaxation for me. I've done several craft projects from Pinterest, some with Hummingbird and some by myself. Either way, it's been a proven way for me to "woosah". And who cares, if it turned out exactly like the Pin, at least you can say you tried it, it's ok. 

Might not sound like much but those are three things that I have tried and am currently doing now to get me in a woosah mode. What works for me may not work for you. We each have to find our own methods, you might be able to try the three I listed above, you might have to tweak them to fit your needs. The goal is to at least try to find ways, which may require us to be more creative in how we find our woosah.

Remember this:

Now go ahead and put yourself in time out!