When your kids are sick, you’re sick and your husband is traveling for work all week, it’s nearly impossible to find time for yourself.

In a nutshell, this was how my “me time” panned out last week:

• No early morning runs – with no energy and no one besides me to hold down the fort, there was never a chance.
• No time for my guilty pleasure show (yes, The Bachelor) – with a sick kiddo in tow, it was all about Peppa Pig and Caillou.
• No chance to read in bed at night – mother/daughter sleepovers and early bedtimes were a must.
• No time for writing – my concentration abilities were at about a zero.

You get it. “Me time” wasn’t fitting in. So I started to wonder, “Is this whole “A Daily Dose of You” idea I’m pushing unrealistic? Have I been giving people false hope that all of us can find even just a little bit of time for ourselves each and every day? Am I setting people up for failure?” While zoning out during way too many episodes of Caillou, I forced myself to dive deeper into these questions.

I thought, “Ok…so…no, I haven’t had time to myself the past few days. I haven’t had time to do the things I love doing solo, but is there anything I’ve done for myself that has made me feel better? Anything at all?” A few thoughts started to trickle in…

• I was offered help with the kids and I took it. Because I did this, I got a very much needed nap and woke up feeling better. Yay me. (The old me would have said, “No way! I’ve got this, thanks so much though!” And then proceeded to be ill for the next two weeks…)
• I went to bed early. As you probably know by now, this is a rarity for me. I did it (two nights in a row…gasp!) and felt so much better.
• I snuggled my daughter tightly. Yes, of course I did this to make her feel better, but it made me feel better too. I remember being sick as a kid and there was no better place to be than the comfort of my Mom’s arms. Being the mom now, it made me smile feeling the beauty of parenthood coming full circle.

It occurred to me that “me time” might just need to be redefined from it’s original context. Maybe “me time” doesn’t always mean “doing something BY YOURSELF” but also “doing something FOR YOURSELF”.

I started going through my old blog posts and realized that this is something I must have known the whole time. I’ve written several posts about ways of thinking and being that allow us to feel good in our skin and on top of our game – not about how to literally get out by ourselves. Go back to You’re Just A Mom, They Must Have It Better Than Me or My Husband Is Selfish. I discuss topics such as accepting our situations, trusting that we are doing our best, finding strength and having a voice. These ideas all center around the way we choose to walk through life. I like to think that tending to these choices absolutely is a form of “me time” and that “me time” now takes on a much broader, more fulfilling meaning.

So if you’ve ever pulled something like I did this week, where you start to doubt the reality of making time for yourself daily, stop and think deeper. Find something that you did for yourself that day that made you feel better. If you can’t find something, that’s your cue to make it happen, but I bet you’ll scoop something up and instantaneously feel relief that you can do this. You’ll feel that a daily dose of you is doable, powerful, blissful and oh so necessary to being fabulous, deserving, beautiful YOU.

Happy Sunday Everyone – cheers!

Charlotte

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