Money Saving Mom®

Missed the first posts in this series? Check them out here.

#9 Breathe Deeply

If you’re constantly giving, giving, giving out and never taking time to breathe and replenish your supply, you’ll soon run out of oxygen. This is why it’s so important to have white space in your life — and as a blogger.

What is White Space?

Picture a book that had no margins — the words completely filled each and every page of the entire book. There was no white space at all — just words on every square centimeter of each page.

Would that book be an easy read? No, it would feel chaotic and busy, probably even overwhelming.

So it is with our lives. If we don’t allow white space to breathe and refresh, but instead pack every moment of every day full to the brim with to-do’s and projects, our lives will feel chaotic, disorderly, and likely exhausting.

How to Cultivate Margin & Breathing Room

If you have a full schedule, you won’t probably naturally find a lot of margin or breathing room in your life. Instead, you have to be intentional about cultivating it. Here are some ideas:

1. Allow Two Extra Hours Each Day

As I mentioned last week, instead of packing every hour of the day with an activity or project, schedule in at least two hours of margin time. This is buffer time to allow for the interruptions that are bound to happen. And if you don’t have two hours’ worth of interruptions in a day, you can use the extra time to do something relaxing and/or refreshing.

2. Schedule Time for Refreshment

We’re all wired differently, but one thing is true for everyone: we need to make time for refreshment. What this will be and how this will look will be unique to each person.

For instance, some people are refreshed by doing something like sky-diving or rock-climbing. Me? I’d prefer to have a heart-to-heart talk with a friend or to cozy up in a quiet and clean house with a hot cup of tea or coffee and a good book.

Ask yourself what truly refreshes you. Make a list of the things that come to mind and then think through how you can incorporate some of these things into your everyday life.

Maybe it’s taking time to call a friend to catch up for 15 or 30 minutes a few times per week. Maybe it’s hiring a babysitter so you can go out to coffee with friends for a few hours every other week. Or maybe it’s just shutting down the electronics early, making yourself a cup of tea and spending 15 to 30 minutes with a good book before bed.

3. Foster Beauty & Creativity in Your Life

You need to make time for beauty, art, and creativity in your life. Once again, what constitutes “beauty” for one person will look different for someone else. But we all need to take more time to soak up the beautiful things in our life instead of rushing through our days at breakneck speed.

One of the reasons I aim to always have some kind of handwork project going — be it knitting, embroidery, or something else — is because it gives me a sense of fulfillment to create with my hands. And this creativity often breeds creativity and energy in other areas of my life.

I also love to drink tea or coffee out of cute mugs, listen to music music with rich depth, try yummy new recipes, watch movies and read books with really great story lines, and burn delicious-smelling candles. Each of these are little ways that I seek to cultivate beauty, art, and creativity in my life — and in our home. They are such simple things, but they inspire and enrich my life.

4. Count Your Blessings

If I’m too busy to count my blessings, I’m just plain too busy. Life is full of blessings — even on the really difficult days.

Reading One Thousand Gifts really inspired me anew in this area. My mom gave me a blessing journal at the beginning of this year — I can’t find it available anywhere online, but it’s basically just a little journal with one line for each day of the year for you to write a blessing down.

I’ve loved this because it’s so simple: it only takes 30 seconds each morning to write down a blessing or two, but it helps me to start out the day reminded of the wonderful blessings in my life. You could do something similar with a notebook or journal.

Take time each day — either when you get up or when you go to bed (or anytime in between!) to recount the many things you have to be grateful for. This will change your whole outlook on life!

When you take time to breathe deeply and have margin in your life, you’ll not only be in a much healthier and happier place, you’ll also be more inspired as a blogger. Not to mention, you’ll just plain enjoy life a whole lot more!

What are your best tips for carving out margin and breathing room in your life?

photo credit; photo credit

Missed the first posts in this series? Check them out here.

 #8 Sleep Restfully

Burning the candle at both ends might seem like it’s allowing you to be more productive, but usually it’s a very ineffective way to live. When you’re not getting enough sleep, you’re not able to be at the top of your game. As a result, you’re often not as inspired or creative — especially when it comes to blogging.

Case in point, not too long ago, I went for almost a week with zero inspiration to blog. I’d sit down to write and I felt like I had nothing to say. I had a lot of things I wanted to write and many different post ideas, but no desire to actually write the posts.

This is very out of character and I began to wonder what was wrong with me. Was I depressed? Was I just plain out of inspiration? Did I need to get my levels checked at doctor? I ran through just about every possible issue in my brain for a few days trying to figure out what could be wrong with me — and I kept coming up dry.

Finally, one night I got a really good night’s rest. And guess what? The next morning I was all inspired to write again!

I wasn’t depressed nor was there anything medically wrong with me; I was just tired. Without really even realizing it, I’d fallen behind on sleep — and it had caught up with me and sucked all the inspiration from me.

Yes, sleep really does make a difference when it comes to blogging (and many other areas in life, too!)

Go to Bed Earlier

The best way to guarantee that you get more sleep is to get to bed earlier. I know that night owls often despise this sort of advice, but whether you are a night owl or a morning person, you need to consider whether or not you’re getting enough sleep.

Are you:

• Feeling exhausted when you wake up in the morning?
• Struggling to keep your eyes open after lunch?
• Hitting a productivity wall in the middle of the afternoon because you are feeling tired?

If any of these things are routinely happening to you, there’s a very good chance that you’re not getting enough sleep at night.

Training yourself to get to bed earlier so you can get a better night’s sleep can be hard. Find an accountability partner who will commit to earlier bedtimes with you (if you’re married, it’s fantastic if that accountability partner can be your spouse!) and then challenge yourself to stick with a realistic earlier bedtime for at least three weeks.

Gradually Teach Your Body to Adapt

Notice I said “realistic”? That’s really important.

If you usually go to bed at 1 a.m., don’t try to all of a sudden change to a 9 p.m. bedtime. Try slowly moving your bedtime by 30 minutes (or even 15 minutes) every few weeks until you hit on a time that works best for your body and your family’s routine.

Plan Ahead for Great Sleep

Great sleep doesn’t always just happen naturally, so do your best to plan ahead and prepare your environment to get the best night’s sleep possible. Here are a few suggestions:

• Wind Down Early – Start getting ready for bed at least an hour before your bedtime. This way, you’re helping your body to start winding down well before you need to be dozing off.
• Drink Less Caffeine — If you have trouble getting to sleep or going to bed earlier, try reducing your caffeine intake. Also, don’t drink caffeine after 3 p.m. (unless you’re like my sister, who finds that she goes right to sleep after she drinks a cup of coffee!)
• Turn Off the Electronics — Seriously, stop checking your email or social media in bed. The world (and you!) will survive just fine. And I promise you won’t get sucked into 30 minutes or an hour of mindless internet-hopping.
• Follow an Evening Routine — Go to bed near the same time every night, if at all possible. The more you can get your body into a rhythm, the better you’ll likely sleep at night.
• Prep the Environment — You might find that drinking a cup of Sleepytime tea, using essential oils, listening to relaxing music, reading, and/or Sleep Balm can help to enhance your sleep. Also, be sure to have a dark room, a comfortable temperature, and maybe even white noise.

If you’re having trouble actually getting to sleep, force yourself to focus on something simple like counting all the blessings you can think of. Or going through the steps of some certain task. Don’t let your mind wander to things that will excite you or camp on things that might worry you.

For more ideas and suggestions, check out the book, Sleep: It Does a Family Good.

Give Yourself Grace

You aren’t going to be able to get a good night’s rest every night. If you have a lot on your plate right now and there’s not much you can delete or delegate, sometimes you just have to power through and do the best you can do.

If you have insomnia, a newborn, a child with sickness or special needs, or other circumstances that are preventing you from regularly getting at least 7 hours of sleep at night, don’t let yourself feel frustrated. Sometimes the best lessons in life are learned from those really stretching, hard, difficult seasons.

As C.S. Lewis so aptly said, “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” So if you’re in one of those trying seasons, don’t give up. Get as much sleep as you can and press on — knowing that this difficult time won’t last for forever!

What tips & tricks help you get a great night’s sleep? I’d love to hear!