May | 2014 | Coach Stressbuster

Many of us spend too much time stressfully doing and checking off our to-do lists of chores and business accomplishments all day long. We don’t take time for the things we love to do in our lives. I am as guilty as anyone. I now include personal time on my to-do list to fit in more fun, and to remember to reach out to friends and family. Isn’t is a shame that I had to put fun on my to-do list? I have even thought about scheduling this time on my calendar like I do business meetings, but haven’t gone that far yet.

So what is it that you love to do outside work? This is a question I ask clients in our first meeting. Some really struggle with this since they don’t have much of a life outside of work. What ever happened to FUN and full 2-day weekends? How many people take off both days of the weekend? I remember when I started work in the early 1980s, I took off both days, and now like many in the US, I just take off one day.

So what do I do for fun? Exercise like hiking. snowshoeing, x-country skiing; music, cooking and creating things with my hands. I really enjoy conversation and recently enjoyed a church retreat with 22 women. I appreciate spending time with friends, and look forward to visiting friends and family in Minnesota this summer. While this trip was already planned, the recent loss of a Minnesota friend my same age reinforced this desire. I am in touch with friends all over the world since I was raised in an international community in Yokohama, Japan. We will be having our “Diva Reunion” in Yokohama, Japan this summer. This is our first return to Japan to celebrate this friendship.

Lately I embraced sewing after a hiatus of several years. I have a lot of car time en route to art shows as my husband, Rodgers is an oil painter. Now I bring along sewing projects and I get so much done, and feel so good about what I create. My latest recreational project was a crochet rug for our bathroom. Rodgers helped me with the color order. For the more curious, my “yarn” is strips of material that I rip up. Many, many yards are consumed in a rug this size, almost 4 feet in diameter. I started this rug at the beginning of our recent car trip to Texas and Kansas. By the end of the trip, I only had 3 rows left to crochet. We now have a new rug and it feels so soft and cushy especially when stepping out of the shower. I started a second rug that will be much larger, which I will take on our next car trip to art shows in Chicago. I feel incredible gratitude that I started to let myself have more fun in the last year.