Life Transitions, Priorities, and Self Care

    Life is full of stages and transitions, and sometimes we need to let ourselves exist largely in the current moment. Not all things are for all stages of life, or even for all people. Sometimes, no matter how much you would like to, you can't do everything. Priorities exist for a reason, and you have to make the associated judgment calls. The beauty of our ever changing lives however, allows certain priorities to shift with time. 

    I'm currently in a bit of a transition period, and it's quite exciting in a lot of ways. But it's also intimidating, like there might be too much possibility. I am very much someone who has to pace myself. If I simultaneously go all in on everything, I burn out quickly, and for at least twice the time that I was "highly productive", thus largely counteracting that productivity. When I was single, or even married with no kids, I could afford that type of recovery a lot more easily. Now that I have multiple kids I can't justify doing that to myself or my family. Perhaps when they're a bit older, I'll be able to toy a bit with burning out, but honestly, I'm pretty content with my moderate level of productivity. I can largely sustain it, which is what matters more to me these days. 

    I think one of the hardest things about my current transition period, is I'm also coming out of an prolonged "hanging on my hardest" period which has negatively impacted my energy reserves and general productivity. It's very annoying, because theoretically I should be able to get quite a bit done now, but I'm not. Irritatingly, one does not automatically recover from something just because those particular contributing circumstances have changed. Currently I have to take things slow and sometimes I really need a nap just to stay functional. I have hope that I will be able to recover more of my energy with adequate rest and rejuvenation, but it is challenging, as I am very much a "need to feel like I have accomplished something with my time" type of person, and when there are very visible things that need to be done, the largely intangible things like "self care" tend to feel superfluous despite their actual vitality. 

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