{"id":433,"date":"2010-09-05T00:00:54","date_gmt":"2010-09-05T07:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sistahology.com\/blog\/?p=433"},"modified":"2010-08-31T09:41:51","modified_gmt":"2010-08-31T16:41:51","slug":"keep-yourself-sane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sistahology.com\/blog\/keep-yourself-sane\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep Yourself Sane"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a normal feeling \u2013 for instance, maybe you just spent all week on the run and haven\u2019t had any time to breathe. However, even though all you can think about it staying in bed all day under the covers, you committed every waking minute to plans. Deep down, you feel this underlying dread.You think, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I just say no?\u201d It\u2019s hard to decline to family members, friends, or anyone important for that matter. I know that I do it all the time \u2013 overbooking myself so that in the end, I have no time to think. It\u2019s a continuous cycle that is hard to break, especially when it seems that everyone\u2019s demands seem to fall around the same time. While it\u2019s typically good for you to live in the moment and seize all opportunities, sometimes it\u2019s bad for your health if you just continue ignoring your body\u2019s pleas for rest and never take a break. How exactly do you do this if you constantly are worried about disappointing people? This isn\u2019t about the \u201ccanceling\u201d as much as the \u201cthinking about yourself\u201d and keeping your sanity. You can\u2019t constantly be selfless and make people happy \u2013 sometimes you have to make YOURSELF happy and just say \u201cno\u201d once in a while.<\/p>\n

1. Make a point to turn down at least one activity a week. <\/strong>If it\u2019s an overly busy week and there\u2019s something you can cancel, do it. Make time for yourself for at least an hour a day. Even just giving yourself time to read or listen to music is a good use of de-stress time. Basically, anything that makes you feel relaxed is fair game.<\/p>\n

2. Tell the family member\/friend about your busy schedule and lack of breathing room.<\/strong> If they realize that you\u2019re turning it down because you\u2019re overwhelmed, they\u2019re more likely to understand and be open to a rain-check. Obviously, you can\u2019t turn down the same person too often if you want to keep their trust. If you find yourself turning down one particular person all of the time, ask yourself, \u201cAm I doing this because I need \u201cme-time\u201d or is it because I just don\u2019t really want to see them?\u201d If it\u2019s the latter, it\u2019s best to gracefully stop contacting them and you both can move on to new contacts with no hard feelings.<\/p>\n

3. I was happy to find that Oprah<\/strong><\/em><\/a> gives a very cohesive list of how to say \u201cno\u201d to anything and everything! Obviously, she\u2019s the Queen of Talk, so I feel like her fifty-seven ideas are just something that must be read.<\/p>\n

4. Keep your home as uncluttered as your schedule. <\/strong>Messy\/dysfunctional living quarters just makes it less easy to concentrate and you most likely to want to avoid being there. If everything\u2019s clean, you can decompress and feel more comfortable with staying home, therefore, keeping yourself sane.<\/p>\n

5. Don\u2019t overestimate how much you can do. <\/strong>Knowing your limits with plans and how much you can handle is an important way to keep yourself from overdoing it. If you can feel comfortable saying \u201cno\u201d when it\u2019s something that\u2019s not immediately important, then you can prioritize better and realize what\u2019s best for your life.<\/p>\n

Basically, being yourself, knowing your limits, and being prepared to use your prioritizing power to plan your life is the best way to go. Only you can be the judge as to what you do in your life. Make the right decisions for YOU and stay sane \u2013 keep an open mind and know when to say \u201cno\u201d versus \u201cyes we can!\u201d Cheers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 It\u2019s a normal feeling \u2013 for instance, maybe you just spent all week on the run and haven\u2019t had any time to breathe. However, even though all you can think about it staying in bed all day under the covers, you committed every waking minute to plans. Deep down, you feel this underlying dread.You […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sistahology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sistahology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sistahology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sistahology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sistahology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sistahology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435,"href":"https:\/\/sistahology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions\/435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sistahology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sistahology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sistahology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}