Today is the last day of Daylight Saving Time for 2018, and at 2:00 tomorrow morning, our clocks will reset to 1:00. Unless, that is, you live in one of the jurisdictions that has shunned the outdated practice. The modern wisdom of Daylight Saving Time is debatable. It can have negative health consequences and is of questionable economic benefit. But for most of us in the United States, changing our clocks twice a year is unavoidable, so we might as well try to use it to our advantage.
My son and I both came down with a cold this week (not surprising given that he started day care last week), so this seems like a good time to discuss self care. Over the past few years, the concept of self care has taken over the internet, with women’s websites constantly telling us we need to escape from our lives and indulge ourselves with expensive products, time-consuming rituals, and unhealthy splurges — as if we need one more thing to do. (Ever notice that these self-care articles rarely seem to be directed at men? I guess the assumption is that they already know how to take care of themselves.)
In the early weeks of motherhood, my days followed roughly this pattern: breastfeed or pump milk for 20-30 (sometimes as long as 45) minutes; wash bottles, eat, change diaper, do laundry, and/or sleep all within the next hour and a half; repeat. Oh, and try to spend some time with the baby somewhere in there. I tracked my pumping frequency and output for my lactation consultant. As an example, on February 27 of this year, I pumped at 12:15 AM, 2:30 AM, 5:15 AM, 7:45 AM, 10:15 AM, 1:15 PM, 3:00 PM, 5:15 PM, 7:15 PM, and 9:00 PM. (If you haven’t had a baby and are under the mistaken impression that maternity leave is a restful vacation, think again.)
“You can learn to follow the inner self, the inner physician that tells you where to go. Healing is simply attempting to do more of those things that bring joy and fewer of those things that bring pain.”
—O. Carl Simonton
It’s been three weeks since I started Project 333, where I limit my wardrobe to 33 items for three months, so this seemed like a fitting time for an update. Boxing up the rest of my clothes the day before I started the challenge was oddly anxiety-provoking. I felt a little sad packing away items I’d carefully selected, on which I’d spent good money not so long ago. I reminded myself that I wasn’t necessarily saying goodbye to those things forever, just taking them out of rotation for a little while. But my reaction made me notice how attached I am to some of my possessions, how tied they are to my self-image, and how hard it can be to let go.