How can we achieve Life + Work balance?

Let's discuss how we can achieve life and work balance by exploring the struggles women face and by providing some tips to help us overcome these challenges and prioritize our personal well-being.

As always, let's start our day by setting our intentions with a beautiful Affirmation: "I deserve a balanced and fulfilling life. I prioritize my well-being and create harmony between personal life and work."

In today's fast-paced world, it's important to find balance between our work commitments, whether they are professional or home making, and our personal lives and well-being. As women, many of us find ourselves juggling multiple roles and responsibilities, such as being a dedicated home maker, career driven, a loving partner, a caring mother, a self-loving healthy individual, and a supportive friend. With all of these different roles, it's easy for us to feel overwhelmed and neglect our own needs, which is usually happening all around the world leading to women living in burn out phase for the majority of their lives, not knowing the beauty of a truly enjoyable, yet balanced lifestyle. We have to remember that our well-being is vital for everything else to function around us so we want to learn how to find balance that is attainable with the right strategies. Our bodies are an Amana from Allah and we must take care of them because it's an equal responsibility like all the other duties we are accountable for under Allah’s eyes. And of course every person's life is different due to different responsibilities, and life circumstances so this is something each person will have to introspect about to find what works for them based on their own experiences and of course some trial and error, as always

We will first get into some struggles that women face worldwide that have a big impact on our life/work balance.

1. Unrealistic Expectations: Society often sets high expectations for women, expecting us to excel both at home and in the workplace. This pressure to be a superwoman can lead to burnout and dissatisfaction.

   1. Ex. making the most difficult fancy meals, working (part/full-time), taking care of your kids if you have kids, caring for your husband, cleaning the home, doing the laundry, getting groceries, running your business, giving your friends/family attention, having friends over, and taking care of your own health needs all at the same time. Is that logically possible? Of course not! But when we write it out on physically in front of our eyes like this it sounds insane but in reality many women are doing all of these and burning out and making themselves physically/mentally/emotionally chronically sick, or they are not meeting all of these check boxes and constantly feeling not worthy or good enough

   2. We need to know that each day will have a different set of balls to juggle depending on the highest priorities of the schedule.

2. Work-Related Stress: Demanding work environments, tight deadlines, and long hours can leave us feeling drained and with little energy for other aspects of our lives.

3. Guilt and Prioritization: Balancing work and family responsibilities may cause feelings of guilt, as we worry about neglecting one aspect while focusing on the other.

4. Lack of Boundaries: Many women struggle to set clear boundaries between work and personal life, leading to blurred lines and constant interruptions. And this point is valid for both career work and house work. We have to consider that house work is a job and we should not be working 24/7. There must be times dedicated to free time, family time, alone time. It’s harder to get this down when all the house work is looking at you telling you to clean me, fold me, wipe me, prep me.

5. Time Management: Finding time for personal activities amidst busy schedules can be challenging, leaving us feeling stretched and unfulfilled.

Overcoming the Struggles:

1. Set Realistic Expectations: Recognize that perfection does not exist in this world period. And it's okay to prioritize certain aspects at different times. Embrace the concept of "good enough" in different areas of your life.

2. Learn to Say No: It's essential to set limits and not overcommit yourself. Saying no to additional tasks or commitments that are beyond your capacity can help maintain a healthier balance. This applies to our own family members, too. Sometimes it’s hard to say no to our loved ones but we can say let’s do it another time and plan for the future.

3. Prioritize Self-Care: Make self-care a non-negotiable part of your routine. Schedule time for activities that rejuvenate you, whether it's exercise, meditation, reading, or spending time in nature.

4. Establish Clear Boundaries: Set designated work hours and stick to them as much as possible. Communicate these boundaries to colleagues and family members to reduce interruptions.

5. Delegate and Share Responsibilities: Don't hesitate to delegate tasks at work and home. Involve family members or roommates in household chores to lighten your load. This can be extremely difficult if your partner is already working twelve hour shifts. But still having some shared responsibilities maybe on the weekend when everyone has more time is better. Choose one day as a fun day and the other as a reset/clean day for the whole family. And this may be different days on different weeks but being consistent with the reset day weekly will definitely help everyone find a balance in their own lives and feel more motivated when the chores are complete.

6. Connecting with others and speaking up about our struggles to help each other: Surround yourself with a strong support system of friends, family, or colleagues who understand the challenges you face and can offer guidance and encouragement.

7. Time Blocking: Organize your day by blocking out specific time slots for work, family, and personal activities. This helps create structure and ensures you make time for all essential aspects of life.

8. Unplug and Disconnect: Set aside specific times when you disconnect from work-related devices and focus solely on personal matters. This practice will help you recharge and prevent burnout. This can be easier if you don’t have kids. But with kids, this can be done when your children are sleeping. Try to have their bedtimes be consistent daily and at an earlier time before you’re so drained to even enjoy some alone time. Alone time and bedtime are different things.
   

How many balls are you juggling?

List all the balls you're juggling. Be detailed: examples are home work, mom work, wife work, career work, volunteer work, online business/social media, school work, nonprofit organization work, etc.

Now after listing all the different balls you juggle, choose only a few to work on for each day. You can’t do all of them everyday. But we want to mentally get used to prioritizing a few balls to juggle daily and completely erasing the other ones. And of course, I’m not talking about being a mother or wife because these are always important and are intertwined daily. But if one day is so busy with so many kids activities and your career work, then nothing will happen if you don’t get to the kitchen that night. A sink full of dishes is fine. You can get to it the next day. But plan for it. When we work on something we want to be mindfully focused on it rather than thinking about every other ball we must juggle.

Homework- Activity ~

Prioritizing Self-Care:

Now, let's engage in an activity to prioritize self-care. Take a few minutes to reflect and jot down at least three self-care activities that you enjoy and can incorporate into your routine. These can be simple actions like going for a walk, having quiet time as you watch your favorite show with yummy drink, reading a book, practicing yoga, or spending quality time with friends.

How many do you actually incorporate? Then schedule at least one thing a week for yourself and put it in your calendar on your phone.