It's a little habit you probably have before bedtime, idly scrolling through social media. And while this is your time to yourself, you may very well not benefit your health by going through social media. It is incredibly stressful, and can give us that dangerous dopamine hit, not to mention the fact that the blue light could severely interrupt our circadian rhythms. But, that's not to say you should not use your phone before bedtime. Instead, make sure you get a blue light filter, but use your phone to do something a little bit better. Because going through social media at the end of the night may very well make you think that everybody has a perfect life except for yourself, it's better to do something to unwind. You could read a book on your phone, or you could waste some time! The article The 14 Best Apps For Wasting Time provides some useful ways to do nothing. You could play a game, and at the very least, this is stimulating your brain in the right way!

Take A Step Back

If you are always on the go, stress will follow. You may go so fast that you feel that you shouldn't stop because that is when you will become ill, or need a massive sleep! But when our body is telling us to take a rest, we need to listen to it! When we feel like there is no time to be unwell, we still have to make sure that we listen to what our body is telling us. It could very well be that you need a lot of sleep, or you aren't fuelling yourself properly. Taking this step back to truly address how you're feeling, in mind and body, can mean that you will give yourself the right medicine. When you feel stressed all the time, but it's not due to any external issues, you've got to figure out your own tolerance. If you forever feel anxious, or in fight or flight, learning certain practices can benefit you. Taking some downtime doesn't mean having to go on holiday, but this may very well be what the doctor ordered! But if you don't have money, or you are forever stressing about things, it's vital that you put in place a habit that gives you some control over your anxieties. It could very well be that you're not eating the right things. And all that caffeine and sugar results in you feeling anxious. In which case, making healthier swaps will benefit. But you don't know what you need until you take a step back to truly assess how you are feeling in mind and body.

Planning And Preparation

If you feel that you never have any downtime, is this because you fill your calendar up with too many things? These days we live in the age of hacks. When you are struggling to find time for anything, this is when the right hack can benefit you. Look at your calendar, and see how your week is structured. Because you need to remember that looking after yourself is a priority, so you may want to think about structuring in some self-care time. But it's important to look at your week, in terms of your work, your home life, and everything that you need to do. This is when you can start to prepare things better, such as batch cooking meals, but also think about what needs doing in comparison to what you think needs doing. There is a big difference. This is when you have to start prioritising tasks. If you feel that you look at your week as a major task, breaking it down into smaller, more manageable ones, will help you. This means that when you start to look at how long it takes to do something, such as preparing vegetables, chopping vegetables up in advance, and freezing them means that you will save up to 20 minutes preparation time! Automatically, if you cook a meal every night, you have 20 minutes extra spare to do something for you.

Making The Most Of Downtime With Your Family

Just because you're being a busy parent all the time doesn’t mean that you should stay away from your children! Parental downtime means enjoying quiet moments with your children. If you are someone that's forever on the go, you may not realise the benefits of enjoying quiet time with your children. It doesn't have to be sitting in silence doing nothing; you could get a board game, or actually sit and talk. When you think about structuring your week and then prioritising the tasks that need doing, as soon as you figure out the things that are necessary, this gives you the chance to spend a bit more time with your children and cementing that family bond. We all feel that now we've got to keep on top of every single task but this means that our children may have everything they need, but not necessarily everything they want. We have to remember that if our children see us relaxing, this can give them permission to slow down as well. We may very well feel that we've got to keep going, but if this how our children see us, and we end up being a stressy parent this is who they think we are. So it's a good idea to start changing this as soon as possible.

Make no mistake, we live in a busy world, and when there is so much to do, having downtime seems impossible. But it's not about scheduling in a few hours here and there; downtime is something that you can build into your day. It doesn't have to be a thing that you need to earn after enduring a long 14 hour day. This isn't healthy for you in the long run. Instead, taking those minutes here and there to focus on where you are, learning how to calm yourself down, and having those moments to yourself can give you a renewed sense of perspective. Your mindset is crucial, and when you are forever on the go, you've got to remember that this builds up in your system. If you feel like you can't relax until everything is done, you will always feel on edge. And because there's always something that needs doing, is there any point in stressing about every little thing constantly? Downtime isn't a few minutes at the end of the day but it's a mindset that you need to get into. And as parents, when there is always something that needs doing, something that we can stress about, as well as external worries, it's far better for us to embrace the idea of downtime as a mindset. It can take some time to lock into this, but when you do, you might wonder why you were so stressed before.