Make Yourself Happy

Busy, busy, busy! That's how my life is and how it's pretty much always been. But, I guess I never realized just how truly busy I was or how much sleep I lacked until just recently. You see, about 5 or 6 months ago, I would get about 4 1/2, maybe 5 hours of shut eye each night, if I was lucky.  Yup...I would live my weeks with about 30  hours or less of sleep.  I know it's terribly unhealthy, speeds up aging, and makes you less alert and partially dumb but, there is always just so much to do and so little time. I never wanted to miss that birthday party, dinner with friends, or really cool event...so I didn't.

Well, all of that non sleeping business had to be put to an end. I had to train myself to be selfish and say no to all of those extra curricular activities and start to  re-prioritize my lifestyle, for the sake and health of Baby G and of course...myself. At first, it was very difficult to get used to but, as the days rolled on, I started feeling better about my decisions  and most importantly, I started to feel happier. Now, I don't feel drained, tired, unfocused or crabby.  I really, truly, feel jovial.

Here are some of the things I changed that I think made my life so much easier:

1. I cut out teaching Zumba 3x a week.  Instead, I do about 30 minutes of working out in front of the television, in my sweats.  Seriously! I feel so much more comfortable, I'm saving time, and I get to watch TV. 

2. I cut out one night of working at Andiamos.  The night is Friday too! So after my long week at the radio station, I can actually head home on a Friday night to do absolutely anything I want and unwind from the office chaos properly.

3. I stopped fully booking every hour of my weekend.  Instead, when i'm invited to do something, I say, i'll let you know, maybe, or i'll try my best but, it's not a guarantee.  It's hard to plan something ahead of time when i'm pregnant especially since I don't know if i'm going to be tired or not. This way, I don't have the person depending on me to be there and I don't feel bad if I don't attend.

4. I make sure I take at least 2 days out of the work week to schedule nothing after work.

What i've learned from this is that you can't do everything for everybody and still live a happy life. You have to give yourself time to relax, rest, and do nothing sometimes. If every hour of your day is filled with a ton of stuff, it will be too hard for you to enjoy anything that you are doing.  I remember a quote from Ferris Buller's Day Off, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop to look around once in a while, you might miss it!" It's good to be busy but, being too busy, can sheild you from actually really enjoying those special moments of life.

Now that I have added several hours of nothing time to my schedule, i've been able to make myself happy by doing whatever I want at those hours.  I see Marco more, bond more with my belly baby, get a ton of rest, and spend time with me.  And I think that is one easy step to achieving happiness- Take time out of your life, to actually spend time with yourself.