Balance: Living A Life Of Habit
For all the times you wanted more hours in a day, here's your solution.
If there's something I've struggled with at all last year, it was finding a balance in my life. I never had time for my blog and spent more time and energy at work, so therefore I got less sleep, my eating schedule was off, and I stopped working out. Everything seemed to fall apart and generally, I was unhappy. I took that unhappiness with me everywhere so it only made sense that this year I had one focus: balance.
I realized that in order to create harmony in my life, I had to change my lifestyle by establishing habits. Living a life with habits makes it so much easier to navigate through life's hurdles knowing that you have everything in order.
Here's how I did it:
After watching a
Buzzfeed video on living like a CEO, that's when it clicked. The only reason I didn't have enough time in my day to do everything I wanted was because I wasn't using my time efficiently. Realistically speaking, 16 hours is quite a lot of time to get as many things done as possible.
So I set a routine and trained my body clock to sleep at certain times and wake up immediately, which evidently made going to work so much easier and the time it took to get ready in the morning so much shorter.
AT NIGHT:
I used to struggle with sleeping as I'd have so much anxiety from neighboring negative energy. I would even wake up hours before my alarm and stay half-asleep until it went off. This was draining in every aspect imaginable and so I had to turn to
Melatonin. For those of you that don't know, Melatonin can be taken to relax your body into complete REM naturally as it releases hormones that we produce naturally but not enough to satisfy our need for proper sleep.
I only digested enough Melatonin to put myself back onto the sleep schedule I wanted to be on. Now between 11 and 11:30 pm, my body starts to relax naturally, which is amazing during the weekday but difficult on nights out, haha!
A few hours before 11, I put my phone away to give myself mental clarity before I sleep. In doing so, it gives me space from the rest of the digital world. I feel less anxious and it prevents myself from bringing those worries into my subconscious. Not to mention, the brightness of the screen (no matter how low the brightness may be) will keep you awake. Ensuring that I detach myself, allows me to give my full undivided attention to my loved ones and to fully indulge in any work, books, or movies I enjoy.
During that time, I'll drink hot tea and take a hot shower to relax my muscle inside and out. Some nights, I'll include some light stretching and exercises along with saging my room of any stale or negative energy that may be lingering.
IN THE MORNING:
In the morning, when my alarm goes off, I'll sit up immediately and look at the sun, which forces my body to wake up. I won't be able to go back to sleep once the blood starts to rush through me. I'll then do some stretches before continuing through my morning routine and won't touch my phone until I get to work. The silence in the mornings keeps me focused on what I need to do and it's alone time I rarely get to have with myself. Once I get to my desk, I'll meditate and finally be ready to start my day.
I've started getting in at 7 am instead of 9:30 am so that I can leave earlier to tend to my blog. It's created a cycle that's made me so much happier and I have the energy to balance everything.
By doing this, I've been able to be more present with my surroundings and attentive to those around me. Often we miss too much or don't learn anything when we're entertained by what's on our screens than what's in front of us. I've become more observant, reflective, and matured faster by paying attention. I'm able to process things better and make decisions with a clear state-of-mind.
I've always believed that it'd be impossible to balance everything I had on my plate. When I would in the past, I sacrificed so much of myself that it turned me into a monster. I was always stressed out and over-fatigued that it took a toll on my relationships and commitments.
Now that I've mastered how to do so, I figured I should share the same with you. By creating a ritual, I get 8 hours of sleep, I meditate, have mental clarity, eat properly, exercise regularly, and am able to still have time to learn new things and travel, and explore new places on top of my blog and job.
Be happy and be healthy. Just because bloggers preach about "the grind" and being sleepless in order to be successful, doesn't mean it's the healthiest decision. It's possible to have it all. It just requires discipline.
