THE FOUR REAL REASONS WHY YOU DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME FOR SELF-CARE.

Are you loving and thriving in your work as a psychologist at the moment? Or are you struggling and feel like you're moving through quicksand? Or maybe somewhere in between? 
 
Wherever you are, that's OK. 
 
I know that prioritising yourself, making hard decisions around self-care and saying NO can be difficult.  Particularly now where there is a continuing increase in demand for mental health services as people struggle with the ongoing impact of COVID19.  

You want to be of service.  You need clients and you need to work.  

However, you also need a sustainable business.  Squeezing in an occasional extra client or going without a lunch break once in a blue moon happens for many reasons.   Doing this on a regular basis starts to add up.  

Without appropriate counterbalances, work overload often catches up with people in the end. And then the overwhelming exhaustion, cynicism and poor productivity impacts on you, your clients and the profession. 
 
You can come back from this, people do. But recovery time is not measured in days or weeks, it is sometimes measured in years. Depending on the source of burnout, it can be exhibited in leaving employment, career change, early retirement, retraining, and/or withdrawal from direct client services. 

When you look at it like this, do you really NOT have enough time for self-care?
 
What makes taking care of yourself difficult?
There are many factors involved in making  prioritising self-care difficult. 

• Imposter Syndrome
• Compassion
• Overt and covert pressure
• Workplace culture
• Financial considerations
• Lack of clear policy and procedures
• Guilt
• Unclear boundaries (In the Essential Self-Care for Psychologists course, the module on boundaries is definitely my favourite one - wish I'd understood all this when I first graduated). 
• You're already burnt out.

However, the reason most people give for not engaging in self-care is that they "ran out of time" or  "I didn't have enough time".

Hmmm....

Yep, no....  that's not it.

Here are four real reasons why you say you don’t have enough time.  

1.     Your current values and priorities don’t allow this task to fit.  Life can become full of anything you choose.  Work, study, children, children’s activities, gym, coffee dates, meetings, etc etc.  There is no shortage of things you can do.   

Hard question alert.
Q: Is what you are currently doing congruent with what is most important to you? 
 
2.     You're worried about looking stupid.  It takes commitment to change your habits so that looking after yourself comes first.  What about if you try this change and it doesn’t work out?  Then you've wasted your limited time and resources.  Your thoughts can also include self-chastisement in that you should already know how to look after myself.

3.     You've bought into the busyness myth .  
In a world where being busy is seen to be a badge of honour, “I’m just too busy.  I don’t have enough time” has become a default.  It’s easier than saying ”I know I should do that, but I actually don’t want to/it’s too hard for me at the moment/I don’t like it/I’m ignoring all things people at the moment/etc” 

How about trying to be super honest (at least with yourself) about what you really want to say.   
Here are some alternatives

• I have other things that are more important to me at the moment. 
• I can do that in a couple of weeks. 
• As much as I love that opportunity, I have enough on my plate at the moment. 
• Thank you for thinking of me, but it's not something I want to feed into my life at the moment. 
• I’m currently prioritizing other things.
• I’m not interested in doing that.
• I currently don't have room for more clients (you really do need that admin day)

 
4.     You don’t love yourself enough. 
​This can be hard to hear.  

Whether it is because you are putting your needs last out of habit, or, you genuinely believe you are not as deserving as others.
 
If you find yourself saying, Oh, I don't have time to sit and meditate for five minutes, I'll just take 10 minutes for lunch time because I have a report to write, I don't have time to prepare a healthy meal. I don't have time to go for a walk. I don't have time to journal. I don't have time to X, whatever it is. If these are common responses to decisions you are making, firstly look at the three points above, but then look at what you are saying about your relationship with yourself. 
 
You are worth it. Okay. You need it. You owe it to yourself. You owe it to your family.  You owe it to your clients.
 
What you can do about reducing your busyness.
 You ARE a limited resource.  No matter how hard you work, there is still only 24 hours in a day.  
 
Shifting your boundary fences to extend your clinic hours, adding on a new extra- curricular activity for your child, taking on extra clients, volunteering, pushing through…..can be a slippery slope to burnout. 
 
I've been there, I've said yes to doing more and more because my clients needed it. When what I needed was to say NO and spend more time with my young family. 
 
Another hard question alert
 Q: What do you need to say NO to?
 
What next?
When you investigate what's behind your claim of “I don't have enough time”, it can be confronting.  However, it's a great place to start.  

You HAVE to look at your priorities and values.
 
And if you don't, if you just keep saying it and not change anything, nothing's going to change. 
 
You might find that you start to feel resentful and neglected.  As the demands pile on and you are not taking care of yourself, you may start to hate your life, crave for things that just aren't there.  Burnout may start to creep up on you.  
 
So, take “I don't have enough time” as your cue to dig deeper, examine your beliefs, your priorities, to engage in honest communication, and to work on removing those barriers that stand between you and your self-care. 

There is no doubt that some seasons of your life, some days, are much harder than others.  Knowing what self-care you need and how to integrate it into your daily life can make the world of difference to you,

You're worth it.

Chat soon

Kim 

ps If would love to have some support in making self-care an essential part of your career, I'd love to help.