Exhaustion sets in, household chores pile up, daily duties overwhelm me and the joy and inspiration gets sucked out of me.
Can you relate?
I think that a lot of my problem is that far too often I allow unrealistic standards run my life. When I worked outside the home, I dreamed of the day I could stay home and have a perfectly clean house, with laundry folded and put away and serve delicious home-cooked gourmet dinners every night.
Then I became a stay at home mom to 2 kids and reality struck.
Yes, as a stay at home mom, you are home more but that just means you have more hours of living in the home, which equals more mess. Laundry is lucky be clean and it's a miracle for it to actually be folded and put away. And home-cooked meals resemble "kids food" and closest I get to gourmet meals is in a recipe book (on a dusty shelf).
Sometimes I look around and all I see is disappointment, and failure.
Real life is not always fun and far too often I let it suck the inspiration and joy right out of me. The meloncholy, uninspired feeling can last a day or a week. It usually lasts until I do something to kick myself out of that joyless funk and do something to inspire inspiration.
So tonight, after a couple days of feeling uninspired, I'm taking some steps to bring inspiration into my life.
Everyone has their own tricks but here's mine.
I do the most uninspiring thing I can think of.
I know that sounds insane but completing the most uninspiring task brings great satisfaction. So tonight, I ill be folding laundry. It's one of my least favorite tasks and I put it off all the time. Nearly every morning, I go down to the laundry room and dig through this mess to find some clothes for me and my kids.
I can't believe I'm even sharing this photo but it's the reality of my situation. And for as much as I hate folding laundry, I love the feeling of satisfaction of having everything folded and put away. It may only last a hour but for that hour, all the clothes will be clean, folded and put away.
And typically while completing such a mindless, menial task my mind is allowed to unwind, relax and amazingly, find inspiration.
So tonight, no sewing for me.
Tonight I will be mindlessly folding clothes of all sizes and colors and injecting some inspiration back into my life.
So, how about you? How do you move past feeling overwhelmed and uninspired and begin to feel inspired again?
Who let you into my bedroom? Because inevitably, that is where all the baskets with clean laundry end up.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm going to fold laundry while watching another episode (the last!) of Sherlock.
I love this post. It is so real!!
ReplyDeleteWhen I am overwhelmed and uninspired I grab my camera and head to the beach.
Helena (a fellow flying classmate)
I know how you feel. I get overwhelmed a lot because I put unrealistic expectations on myself. Lately, I have been listening to music while I fold and put away the laundry. That really helps me to not hate it so much. In general, I remember that our children won't be little for long.(My daughter is 2.)So I try to "let it go" a lot and get things done when I can.
ReplyDeleteYep!! I don't mind washing the clothes at all. It's the folding I hate!!! Thanks for being so honest!!
ReplyDeleteWhen I am uninspired or overwhelmed, I find walking the dog helps. My mind starts out clouded and then are we walk things clear up and inspiration often finds me, I will slowly start to pay more attention to the world around me, that is when the magic happens and creativity finds me.
ReplyDeleteI love this idea. We don't have a dog yet but we promised our oldest son one in the next couple years so I imagine that this will become something I start doing myself. Thanks for sharing!
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