Why I Took a #MEday – and Why You Should Too

We work hard. Let’s face it – between juggling the kids schedules, your spouse’s agenda, work, volunteering, after curricular activities, plus handling all of the little mundane things (like shopping, cleaning, and bills) there’s just not much time left – is there?

Sometimes I tend to overdo it, and in the past I’ve found myself in a vicious cycle of being over committed, completely exhausted, unable to focus, and in doing so I know that I’m not being the best ME that I know I can be – and I know I’m not the only one out here that struggle with this.

I’m not sure why we always feel the need to have an excuse to take time for ourselves, because in reality it should be a necessity. It’s not being selfish to take time for yourself. Ever.

Sometimes taking a ME day isn’t necessarily an entire day or a huge planned event, sometimes it’s just making an effort to do something for you, whether that be taking a hot bath, spending half of an hour in a coffee shop solo sipping a latte, a 20 minute nap, a pedicure, or even a 30 minute workout in the gym – taking time to do all of those things will in return make you a better wife, better mother, better YOU. I make sure that I do these things on a weekly basis for ME.

According to a recent survey conducted by domain.ME 8 out of 10 participates stated that they felt stressed about their work and life balance – and that’s not right.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to have a girl’s night with a couple of friends plus some co-workers. One of my friends drove down from Astoria and she and I stayed the night at our other friend’s house. We met everyone and then went to a special movie theater that served snacks and cocktails.

After the movie the three of us went back to her house where we snacked and talked until nearly 4 am. These women, like me, are incredibly busy and I won’t lie and say that it didn’t take any effort to make our girl’s night happen, but we all decided that it was a priority and made the time to have fun. I know that sounds crazy, right? But it’s so important.

Even though I was very tired the next day it was so wonderful to be able to catch up and maintain my friendships, celebrating each other’s lives, while each of us had a little ME time.

International ME day is coming up on March 16th, but we shouldn’t need a set day to take time for ourselves. Everyday some small part of the day, should be devoted to spending time with ourselves.