7 {Simple And Realistic} Ways You Can Take Care Of Yourself When Life Feels Chaotic

You know those times when life feels like a whirlwind and you’re just trying to keep your head above water? So the house gets neglected, everything feels rushed, and bedtime can’t come soon enough? I have those seasons, too. Right now, in fact, is one of them!

I mentioned that my husband and I bought a fixer-upper and are moving to the country. What I neglected to share is just a few months before we purchased our new home, we’d purchased an office building to move our computer service company into.

And that new office building needed completely renovated. As-in, walls needed torn down, awkward additions were bulldozed, the roof had to be replaced, and the entire layout of the inside was completely changed to fit our business needs.

But just like our new house, the location was perfect and the price was amazing.

So we went for it, and as we simultaneously neared the completion of commercial property renovations and wrapped up our eighth homeschool year, my family was worn out and weary, and I felt like we barely limped across the finish line.

But limping across the finish line is still finishing.

While I am a firm believer that extreme busyness shouldn’t be the continual long term beat of our lives, I also believe there are God-ordained seasons of busyness when we need to persevere through a difficult schedule so we can grow, stretch, and be refined.

“I will bring the one–third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.'” Zechariah 13:9, NKJV

During seasons of growth and refinement, it’s important to keep our hearts and minds open to what we can learn throughout the experience. We can choose to become bitter when we feel like our lot is harder than everyone else’s, or we can grow closer to God throughout the process.

“³ For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, ⁵ casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, ⁶ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 NKJV (emphasis mine)

When you feel the storms of life threatening to make you bitter, remember what 2 Corinthians 10 tells us – the battle we’re fighting is not a physical battle, but a spiritual one. Take your thoughts captive, and trust that God has a good plan for your life.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11, NKJV

In addition to keeping our focus on positive, worthwhile things when we’re going through a busy season, there are a few other things we can do to take care of ourselves as we learn and grow:

7 {Simple & Realistic} Ways You Can Take Care Of Yourself… Even When Life Feels Chaotic

1) Schedule time off

Nobody’s going to force you to take time off – you’re going to have to put it on the calendar and make it happen! It may feel like the worst thing to do, but taking a day – or even just an hour – off to intentionally rest, refresh, and spend time with the little people often makes all the difference in attitudes and productivity after we get back to work.

2) Get enough sleep

I know, I know! You’re too busy to sleep more than a few hours per night… But usually when we don’t get enough sleep, we move slower, we’re more easily annoyed, and even if we have caffeine, we’re generally not as productive and don’t think as clearly as when we’ve had enough rest.

You will accomplish more each day if you give yourself the extra rest you need instead of forcing yourself to stay up late and get up early on a regular basis.

3) Do something that relaxes you

I included a list of relaxing activities that only take 15 minutes or less in this post about how to care for yourself without being selfish.

Your ways to relax may differ from mine, but try not to waste your precious few minutes of free time simply browsing social media, scarfing down comfort food, or watching television shows that you don’t really care about. Instead, do something you’ll enjoy in the moment and feel good about after.

4) Cook simple, healthy meals

I recently spent a month following the Whole30 eating plan. While it seemed like the worst time to try out a food experiment, doing so has actually been a blessing. Removing processed foods from my diet had a huge positive impact on my energy levels and mood, which has helped me feel surprisingly good throughout our very long days.

Even if you don’t want to try something like Whole30 to help you jump start a healthy eating plan, just cooking very simple, healthy meals will go a long way in giving your body the nourishment and fuel it needs to be able to power through a chaotic season.

5) Drink enough water and take your vitamins

This is absolutely the easiest, and most easily overlooked, item on the list. I started taking multi-vitamins and drinking at least 64 ounces of water per day several months ago, and my migraines and exhaustion have significantly decreased because of it. Migraines or sluggishness from lack of vitamins and water = less productivity and more mood swings.

Even if you don’t suffer from headaches or tiredness, staying hydrated and taking your vitamins will likely help boost your moods and energy. It’s a frugal, easy experiment, so try it for a month and see how you feel!

6) Minimize unnecessary things in your schedule {Also known as “Get Over FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)”}

We can likely all benefit from service projects and activities that cultivate close friendships with others. But a busy, chaotic season isn’t the time to over commit or have every spare moment crammed full of activities.

Instead, carefully choose just 1-3 things per month that don’t take much extra planning on your part and ignore everything else.

7) Choose your mood

I alluded to this in the introduction (go ahead – scroll up and read it now if you skimmed over that part!), but basically we can be mad about all the craziness going on in our lives, or we can choose to accept where we are and embrace things as much as possible.

We’re told in Ecclesiastes that the end of a thing is better than its beginning. Finish well, friend.

“The end of a thing is better than its beginning; The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” Ecclesiastes 7:8, NKJV

I’d love to hear: How do you take care of yourself when you’re going through a busy season?

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