The Myth: Work-Life Balance

I have to admit, I am guilty of buying into this myth of “Work-Life Balance”. I put a lot of pressure on myself as a therapist to “practice what I preach”. When I find myself working too much, sleeping too little, and neglecting to take care of myself, I end up feeling like a hypocrite. I like the method author Tina Cantrill offers in the article below, for observing and taking a detailed inventory of how you actually spend your time. 

Creating three buckets: “Life Sustaining”, “Lifestyle Sustaining”, and “Life Nourishing”, categorizes your activities helping you to see which buckets need attention in a way that is less overwhelming. When I am feeling “unbalanced” it’s usually because I feel like I don’t have time for the things in my “Life Nourishing” bucket. As I tune in to what I need and find time to do the things that light me up, I find that it reenergizes me, helping me to fill the other two areas as well! The more time I spend “in tune”, the more obvious it is when I’m out of tune and in need of adjustment.

Is counseling part of your "Life Nourishing" bucket? if not, please reach out to us at Watershed Initiative to make it a part of your life.

- Lynn McCracken, MS, LPC-S

Photo by Phil Hearing on Unsplash