coming_clean

Sobriety / spirituality has been a process of living life as slowly as possible. Investing most of my time into doing things I like.

Now, as a father of two little boys, working 50 hours a week, im struggling to maintain even a mediocre excercising routine.

My meditation practise has diminshed and I had to let go my online activities by 90%.

I find this all really hard to cope with.
Using / drinking takes up a lot less time then spirituality. (Not going to)

Delilah1

I know how difficult it is to fit in exercise/meditation, but you can do it. My kids are older, so sometimes they will come with me to the gym, we have a Y family membership, when they were younger I would bring them to the daycare at the gym. Try taking short exercise breaks throughout the day, you may not be able to fit in an hour long workout, but you can try to carve out time for several ten minute bursts of exercise.
Mindfulness meditation may fit in right before bed, even a short one. I know it's not easy, but you'll feel better if you are able to take care of you as well as your kids.

Dee74

For years, especially after getting sober, I had this thing where if I wasn't working or somehow being productive I was feeling guilty for wasting time.

Now I realise how important balance is and I make regular time for me to relax and decompress.

I think it's every bit as important as any other part of recovery CC.

D

Berrybean

I've shared this on here before, and I have it written on the top of my daily prayer sheet to remind myself.

A man was in the forest chopping logs. He had been chopping for hours and still his pile of logs to be chopped had hardly gone down at all, and he was tired and irritable. To add to his irritation an old fellow passed by, and stood watching him as he chopped and muttered curses under his breath, sweat trickling down his face and neck. Eventually he paused and glared at the old fellow.
"I know a good place to get that axe sharpened" the old fellow said. " If you like I can take you there now."
The wood cutter laughed bitterly. " No thanks. I have no time for going to get axes sharpened. I have all this to do, can't you see?"


We cannot fight time. It is a battle we are destined to lose. There is what there is. But we can make better use of the time we have when we are calm and focused, and have reset our sights to our true purpose. That's especially important when we lead busy lives full of people very keen to convince us that our purpose is in fact them and their purpose.

Perhaps you could compromise on the amount of time spent in meditation. Event 5 or 10 minutes is better than none at all. As far as exercise goes, little boys quite like exercise themselves. Is there anything you could do together that would be more exercise, and also fun? Football in the park. Trampolining. Playing chase. That kind of stuff. You probably do more exercise than most just keeping up with them anyway - it may not be a regime but it is still exercise. Plus you would be giving them a great start if they see exercise as fun and a great way to spend time together. If they're old enough they might even get involved in some meditation. I know one of the girls in my class (special ed) loves to 'meditate' with her mum. Again, great lessons for your kids re life and balance.

I hope you find some ways of acknowledging and building on the exercise you're already doing, and finding some quiet time for meditation.

Wishing you all the best for your sobriety and recovery. BB

D122y

Cc,

Imo...Drinking takes more time than exercise or self care.

Stay clean.

teaorcoffee

Agree D122y - I lose so much time each day when I'm drinking as any simple task takes 4 times as long to complete

coming_clean

Thank you for the replies.

Lately im forced by adulthood and parenting to re-evaluate my life and timespending.

I know addiction is the most inefficient way to doend it .

I just find hard to grow up I guess if im honest lol.