Housework overload: How to stay sane
How to stay sane
With apologies to Rudyard Kipling – this post is to help to keep your head when all around you are messing up your house…
And you’ve just tidied it!
There are few greater tests of love than keeping your temper when family members unravel your hard work – before your very eyes.
Now that’s tough.
But then that’s life, full of challenges.
Of course, being human, some days we won’t manage to keep a lid on our simmering fury.
However, if we can manage our anger on just a few of these testing occasions, so much the better for all within earshot – not least ourselves.
And as the wise Lemony Snicket puts it,
“Temper tantrums, however fun they may be to throw, rarely solve whatever problem is causing them.”
So learning to stay sane amid housework overload is useful because, let’s face it – this particular problem isn’t likely to be a one-off.
If your family are anything like mine, they will view a tidy room or clean surface as an irresistible magnet for clothes, toys, papers and other such debris.
So until we discover how to retrain them successfully, we need an antidote to the temptation to explode.
A breath of fresh air
The good news, is I believe I have found such a remedy.
But the really fantastic news is – it’s free!
And what is this magic solution that can blow away your anger?
Well, actually it’s a breath of fresh air!
Literally!
A great deep lungful of oxygen rich good stuff.
I know it sounds too simple to be true, but just try it!
The next time you feel a fit of domestic pique coming on, step away from the friction and head for the Great Outdoors.
A few deep breaths later and you’ll feel less like blowing your top.
Of course, it won’t do anything about the source of your anger – that will still be there when you venture back inside (should you choose to do so…)
But even then, after just a brief spell in the fresh air, you’ll return feeling more positive and composed – you’ll be serenity itself.
That’s got to be more fun than the wild-eyed banshee-beast of moments before.
Breathwork benefits
This simple trick is so effective that you needn’t wait for your beloved family to push your buttons.
Ensuring a daily dose of deep breathing in some clean air will do much for your overall health and well-being.
And it will leave you able to cope more calmly when future ‘situations’ arise (which they will…)
Perhaps because it is so free and easy, it is greatly under-rated, but the benefits of deep breathing fresh air are well documented.
This simple act has powerful effects on the very cells of our body.
In fact, it has a proven tranquilizing effect – without a prescription!
So, the next time you are about to let rip on your resident housework-sabateurs, just calmly leave the room and step outside.
Spend a few restorative moments in your garden.
If you don’t have a garden, find the window with the best view, and open it – wide!
If it’s a sunny day, the benefits are amplified as sunshine brings its own goodness, but this is not just a fair-weather solution, (which is lucky for me as I live in the UK…)
Even if it’s raining, it’s worth braving a brief dampening for the sake of your sanity.
And you won’t dissolve.
Unlike your anger – which will be, literally, gone with the wind.