Last week was the week of no responsibilities for me.\u00a0 Meaning there were no children around. They spent the week at Grandma\u2019s in another province.<\/p>\n
I really enjoy these times.\u00a0 I can do what I want to do, when I want to do it, without feeling obligated to anyone \u2013 not even my husband.\u00a0 I think everyone should experience this at least once a year, even if it is only for a few days.<\/p>\n
This time is precious to me, but in the past I have actually stressed about using the time \u2018wisely\u2019.\u00a0 What if I don\u2019t accomplish what needs to be accomplished (for my emotional, mental, and spiritual health) in the time given to me?\u00a0 What if I squander it?\u00a0 What if it was a waste?\u00a0 These are thoughts that would go through my mind.\u00a0 It was particularly bad if I only had a day or two without the kids.\u00a0 As if it was demanded that I achieve some new level of spiritual growth, and if I didn\u2019t I would have squandered that precious gift of time, never to get it back.<\/p>\n
This time around I didn\u2019t experience that kind of stress, although I felt a little anxious the last day before picking up the kids.\u00a0 I think it helped that I had an entire week (7 full days) with no kids.\u00a0 It also helped that I\u2019ve started to let go of more of the expectations I put on myself and am learning to accept myself more\u2026as I am.<\/p>\n
I come away from this week feeling relaxed and refreshed.\u00a0 I went for walks, took naps, slept in, read a book cover to cover in three days, wrote in my journal, and listened to a few books of the Bible.\u00a0 My husband would ask me, \u201cHave any plans for the day?\u201d\u00a0 And I\u2019d answer, \u201cNo, I\u2019ll just do whatever I feel like doing.\u201d\u00a0 No plans, no obligations, full freedom to \u2018go with the flow\u2019.\u00a0 It was wonderful!<\/p>\n
I think that it\u2019s healthy and good \u2013 for one\u2019s personal well being \u2013 to have a space where the cares and worries of our day-to-day lives are put on the shelf for a time and we are free to experience ourselves as simply \u2018being\u2019.\u00a0 Our identity not defined by our accomplishments or usefulness. \u00a0I find myself, particularly as a mother and career woman, basing my sense of worth on my ability to contribute \u2013 in my home and work environments especially.\u00a0 I recognize this isn\u2019t a healthy place to be, and am thankful for the opportunity to experience and accept myself for who I AM, not so much on the purpose I serve.\u00a0 It\u2019s a long way to go for me in this area, but these times help the process, despite the fact that I was not planning on \u2018accomplishing\u2019 anything during my week of \u2018no responsibilities\u2019 (or perhaps\u2026because of that fact).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week was the week of no responsibilities for me.\u00a0 Meaning there were no children around. They spent the week at Grandma\u2019s in another province. […] Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":516,"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions\/516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}