Those of us in the middling through generation have care of children and grandchildren at the same time that we may be caring for aging relatives. As we have noted before increased longevity means that we may have as many as six generations in a family alive at any one time! This is a huge blessing – Think what a great grandmother or great grandfather can pass onto a youngster! However there is little doubt that it can be stressful, particularly for women because we are often the primary caregivers. Add to that the fact that working women in their forties and fifties are most likely to be at the peak of their careers and therefore have more responsibility and more challenges. Burnout is highly possible as we try to juggle our various personal and professional roles.
I therefore found it very interesting when I read a recent article in Black Enterprise in which a doctor described her own discovery that she was living an unbalanced life. She mentioned the five fundamentals and her own journey to get them in balance. The five fundamentals (not necessarily in any particular order) are –
– Faith
– Fitness
– Food
– Fun
– Family
With those in mind here are some questions I am asking myself that you might find useful as well
– Faith: Am I losing touch with my faith because of pressures of time and obligations? Am I skipping services or events related to my faith for the same reason?
– Family: Am I spending quality time with family members, especially those for whom I am not a caregiver? Do we spend our time just talking about our obligations and exchanging basic information, or are we making time to enjoy one another’s company?
– Food – Am I skipping meals? Making unhealthy choices because of stress or pressure of time? Am I eating too much or too little?
– Fitness – Is my weight in the desired zone? Am I exercising regularly? Am I feeling good?
– Fun – Am I enjoying life or just going through it? Laughter is said to be the best medicine – Am I laughing enough? Am I skipping fun activities regularly because I am too tired or too busy?
As I look at my own list I realize that I need to be more balanced. However rather than make it too stressful to be balanced I am thinking of combining some things. For example I do work out regularly but it could be more fun! To add some fun I downloaded a couple of books to listen to on the elliptical (Yes, that’s my idea of fun! I love reading but don’t get time to do as much as I would like to). Similarly, I do like cooking but don’t do enough of it because of time pressures. I’m rethinking that aspect of my life because it is fun and would hit the food list because my own meals are always healthier than the prepackaged ones. I’m planning on fewer cans and boxes and more fresh stuff.
There are other choices that I’m going to have to make but as I looked at the fundamental five I had to fight my Type A tendency to do a list of twenty changes to start next week! That would be just too stressful so I picked one or two gradual changes to work on and then move onto the rest. How about you? What would your fundamental five checklist look like? Do your own check and make a few changes. Let’s fight burnout with everything that we’ve got – our life depends on it!
middlingthrough 