Pacing Yourself

Pacing myself is one of the self care skills I still resist. Life is much smoother when I do it but part of me grabs a day with a little extra energy and wrings out all the tasks possible leaving me totally exhausted.

Yesterday we hit a weather record set at 34 C. My poor dogs were sweltering in their heavy coats. So I set up the table inside under a ceiling fan and trimmed up Cassie the older more cooperative dog. She allowed all the work except her legs and I scissored the worst mats off them. I was wringing in sweat and quite exhausted. I sat and had a drink of water. Then instead of laying down for a nap I caught Ozzie to start his haircut.

He quite enjoyed feeling the cooler air on his trimmed back. Then he begin to wiggle and squirm and resist the trimmer. I lost my patience and shouted at him to stay still and he jumped off the table looking ridiculous with a partial cut. In stead of resting then I caught him and tried to trim his ears and face with him resisting and me short on patience. Finally I gave up and let both dogs outside even though Ozzie needed his legs done and his stomach.

I was frustrated. There was hair everywhere and Ozzie wasn't anywhere near finished. I stripped out of the hair covered clothing and slipped on clean cool clothing. I finally laid down to rest and decided to leave the mess until later in case I could finish Ozzie's cut. Several hours of rest later I brought Oz back to the table and finished one leg and let him run around while I rested. I repeated this until all four legs were completed. Then I turned both dogs outside.

I looked around to the mess of hair. I felt overwhelmed and discouraged. I rested while I watched a show then I got up and gathered the fur and vacuumed up the worst of the mess during commercials and laying down during the show. I was totally exhausted, hot and grumpy.

If I had just quit for the day after Cassie and tackled Ozzie another day I wouldn't be paying for yesterday's efforts today with aches and pains, exhaustion and the need to return to bed and sleep the morning away. Hindsight is 20/20. Hopefully next time I have an opportunity to pace myself I'll be able to focus on my health needs and not just the task at hand.

Here is a good article on the skill of pacing yourself: http://home.flash.net/~brucepa/Key3.htm