It’s been a minute! This was originally going to be about the basic housekeeping that I’ve done on the website, but it quickly shifted into describing my current state of burnout.
Life has been sooo busy for me the last few months. Multiple items on the calendar each day for me, my kids, and my husband. Doctor or dentist appointments, psychologist or psychiatrist appointments, physical therapy, training sessions, school tours, hair appointments, cub scout and girl scout meetings, baseball practices, etc. My kids got invited to 7 different birthday parties this month! Having so much on my calendar means that I am losing track of things I’ve committed to. I’ve had to rearrange appointments or just flat out cancel things, sometimes at the last minute.
I’ve recently started fostering a cat. I impulsively applied to a rescue and was approved. Generally cats are pretty easy for me so I did not expect this to be challenging. And it has been easy, with one notable exception. Earlier this week I woke up at 5 am and I drove an hour to the vet clinic for the cat’s alter appointment. I waited almost an hour to speak to someone before I realized I was at the wrong location. When I finally got home I next realized I was a day early. I am NOT a morning person. So not only did I stress out myself and the poor cat, I also lost sleep because of my mix-up.
And then I got sick with a mild stomach bug.
The last few weeks I have been lamenting the lack of freedom in what I do with my days. I’ve been longing for the boredom I felt while initially recovering from my hysterectomy. I am way past my limit, and now my body made the choice for me. I am burned out!
Check out these videos on burnout & recovery from burnout. They are from the ADHD & Autistic perspective, but most of this is likely applicable regardless of your neurotype.
Now that I’ve taken a couple days to recover from the stomach bug and the resulting weakness from not enough food & sleep, what now? I have been avoiding putting more things on my calendar, but that doesn’t solve the problem of the items I still have on my calendar. This means that I am now in the process of eliminating or rescheduling some of my commitments. This is hard for me to do. Some of these things I really did want to do at first, but now I have no interest (or energy!) in doing. I feel like I am letting others or myself down.
If I don’t make time for myself I won’t have anything left to give to others.
As the recovery video pointed out, letting go of some things so that I can say yes to the things that I actually want to do will help me immensely in the long run. I need energy and time to be present for my children and husband, and all my animals. I need to be able to devote time to leading my daughter’s Girl Scout troop. I want to have the freedom to tend to my plants. I want to have time to explore hobbies and crafts.
I need to have the energy and time to devote to this website. For me this is a need and not a want. I need to have an outlet while I am on this road of self discovery, understanding, and acceptance for myself and my family. Because I’ve been so busy I have not had a chance to properly research and share my perspective on any of the many topics I have been collecting. But I am making changes so that I can consistently have this outlet that I so crave.
I have set up a poll/form listing all the topics that I am interested in researching and sharing. Please let me know if you would like to know more about any of these, and I welcome your perspective and experience in these spaces.
https://forms.gle/eX8LyNhPLSMhhXJC6
Comments *should* be available now. Please let me know if they are not visible to you here. Anything entered into my Contact Me form prior to the last couple weeks is lost, unfortunately, but it is now properly up and running so feel free to resubmit.
Until next time!