Ever feel like life is pulling you in twenty different directions? Almost like your life is not your own. Hoping to take just one second to breathe. Just to be able to center yourself. That maybe, just maybe the chaos will subside.
Chaos is not just something that happens out in the world. Even in one’s mind, chaos can take hold. Giving you the feeling of walls closing in. As if life itself is trying to pull you underwater. Whether at home from family, at work, or just in your own mind, turmoil can linger. How are we supposed to breathe through the disarray? Breathe through the chaos?
Life of Chaos
Running a household, either by yourself or with your partner, while maintaining a career or job, not to mention commitments with family and friends can all add to the discord of your story life. Now, add in a pandemic, or any family illness or injury and you can find yourself in the inevitable “straw that broke the camel’s back”. But these are all things that, except for the pandemic or any other outside occurrence, can be structured by choices that we make throughout our lives.
Take a Breath
Getting to a point where you find yourself strung out and worn down, as if the world doesn’t know the struggles you are facing. You are right, they don’t know. Many people today find themselves in this position and don’t have an outlet to escape to. It is time to take a breath. There were days that I would find myself in an emotional breakdown, ready to snap at anything in my way. The tears were just at bay and it wouldn’t take much to let them go.
My life has not been much of a struggle recently, for which I am grateful. I do have struggles with my perception of how I wish my life was. When, I get to this point in my mind, I know it is time for me to “take my breath”. I have mentioned in previous posts, that my life has a tendency to be very routine. Wake up, feed dogs, get child ready for school, get ready for work, go to work, get home and make dinner, help with homework, feed family and dogs, get child in bath, get child to bed, and THEN I can lay in bed. But wait, there is more. I also, then help my husband whenever he requests. What you didn’t read in that list was any time for me.
I have tried giving myself 1 hour a day to be alone. Just to give my mind a break. Some people have found this suggestion to work for them. However, for me, I needed more. My hour started becoming time for when the child was in the bath and started to get interrupted easily. I now take my breath another way. I mini vacation alone.
Outside Perception of Breathing
Decided it is time to take your breath from the chaos? I warn you now, do not expect everyone to understand. Again, I am fortunate that the company I work for encourages a “Me Day” every now and then to help their employees maintain a self-assurance. The obstacle that I faced and many others I am sure will, is with my spouse.
Love from a spouse should be never-ending and all inclusive. This can produce a struggle unto its own. I have heard, “What? You don’t want to be around me anymore?” How do you respond to this from a loved one? The guilt driven statement had the affect it was intended and the “Me Day” is no more. Well, at that time.
Stay strong. I have had to explain that it is my love for them and wanting to be a better person and wife and mother to them, that I need the time alone. Need to know that I am who I am. I need my time to breathe through the chaos. By simply explaining that I am not happy at this time in my life. The chaos in my mind is wanting to overtake and for this, I need a Me Day.
Ways to Breathe
“An apple a day, keeps the doctor away.” Well, so does time away, keeps my mind at bay. Whether you take a Me Day, a mini vacation by yourself or your loved ones take some time to visit family and friends without you, time is just one important element to a peaceful mind. Take a moment to close your eyes, take that deep breath in and slowly exhale. Center yourself. Relax your mind. Use music, art, nature, anything that you know can calm your senses to breathe. Find your way to breathe through your chaos, just so that this one moment, one day can be a breath easier on your storybook life.
With great warmth,
