Can You Do It?

My friends, tell me about the past six months of your life.

Peaceful or stressed? Blissful, energetic superwoman or an exhausted stress ball? 

Are you right where you want to be in your life? Content, achieving, taking risks, feeling confident? Or would your answers be more like:

I am tired.

I focus all my energy on my family.

I work too much.

I don’t sleep well.

Joy is a distant memory.

I give my free time to others.

If you have more of the above negative and less of the positive, it is time to make some changes. Hard to do for some of us who have settled into a pattern of give to others not ourselves, but a pattern you can break. A pattern you have to break.

Can you carve out one night a week, one hour just for you? Carve it out, claim it, put it on your calendar and set your phone to remind you. Your hour, use it wisely. Put down the laundry, stay away from the dishes in the sink, look away from the clutter for just one precious hour.

A licensed social worker, Julie McGrath, LICSW watched women disappear into parenting, relationships and work, losing their true selves and desires in the process. The women around her were becoming empty shells of who they once were, full of guilt at the prospect of taking the precious time they needed for themselves. A strong advocate for women, Julie said, “Enough!”

In 2009, she founded The Joy Source LLC to encourage and empower women to rediscover themselves, find their joy and passion, and then live it. Through The Joy Source, Julie leads groups and getaway weekends for women, offers individual joy coaching in person or by phone, and publishes a free, online magazine, The Joy Ride (subscribe at http://thejoysource.com). Her first book, Joy-Worthy: A Mother's Guide to More Joy, Less Stress and No Guilt comes out on Amazon.com on Nov. 8, 2012.