Thought for the day….it is ok to say “No”. We are taught through out lives to be polite, to do what is “right” and “nice”. What happens when doing all of this “making things right” ends up instead just making your life harder? I know that we all want to do our best, to do it all, but at what cost is all of this juggling doing? Currently I am active in school as Governor, have three therapy appointments every week (very emotionally draining ones), foster two high needs children full-time which includes a lot of appointments and social worker visits, I volunteer on this page, I volunteer time for the NATP with the support line (though this is not often), I also train others and help support other careers outside the NATP and in the NATP, and I also have physical issues I am currently dealing with that takes their own appointments and issues. I am busy. I realised yesterday that I was going to need to drop something, that all of this is no longer making me happy. I am looking at what helps, what I have to do, and what makes me happy. I plan on giving something up and saying “No” to anything new coming my way. I am also planning on starting school again after the therapy is finished, so in a year or two. Right now is just not the right time. I can’t juggle everything. Ok, I could, but I would not be happy. I would lose time for myself and create an atmosphere of pressure, always needing to do the next thing. Maybe others are juggling more and being successful at it, good for them, but my happiness depends upon my ability to say no to what is not right for me. My self care this week is going to be saying no to what is no longer right for me and for what is not making me happy. I need to be less stressed in order to be a better parent. I need to teach my kids that we don’t have to go through life always making everyone else happy, that we can juggle work, family and find time for ourselves and if our juggling is not working that it is ok to drop one of the balls…my juggling is no longer working, I am dropping one of the balls up in the air and that is ok. Just wondering…how is your juggling? Is it making you happy or are you juggling a few too many things up in the air? Have a look, see what makes you happy and maybe you can slow things down just enough to get back to where you want to be.