Finding a Good Work-Life Balance

After a long hiatus, I am back! Work and domestic duties and responsibilities among other things have kept me away from writing/blogging. I'm so glad I finally found time to do this today. This is one of the rare Saturdays that I am home.  I usually work on weekends because that's the busiest time of the week at Cintai (www.coritosgarden.com) but my reliable manager is there now attending to our corporate guests and clients so I can enjoy this afternoon with my kids. I just successfully put the two rascals to sleep now so I am able to do this. 

I don't even know where to begin because my last post was already 5 months ago and a lot of things/events have happened. I guess for this first post for this year, I'd like to share with all the mommies out the value of time management to achieve a good balance between work, family time and ME time (time for yourself!). An old friend from Highschool contacted me recently and asked if I can be interviewed for a segment in a Health-related Magazine about Stress Management. She said that her friend was a writer who asked her if she knew someone who had a lot of things on her plate (work/career/family duties/etc.) and despite all these still manage to stay healthy and have a positive outlook. She said that thru my facebook and instagram posts, I was the first person she though of! (Blush, blush! hahaha!). I'm just happy that somehow thru social media, I am able to inspire my other friends and co-moms that it CAN be done! 

Just to give you a picture of how a regular day looks like for me;

My day starts really early. I am usually up by 6 since my kids are early risers. They are my natural alarm clock. I convince myself everyday that it's a good thing! Hahaha!  Before I take breakfast, I do some stretching/meditation for about 15 minutes. This quiet time in the morning is very important for me because it resets my mind and by body and prepares it for the rest of the day. I recommend this to all those who have highly stressful jobs and who need to spend a few minutes to keep your mind blank. I anchor my meditation on breathing which is highly effective. After this ritual, I then head to the kitchen to make our green juice and breakfast;

Morning Yoga (all pictures taken at different parts of our home)

 We make our green juice daily using fruits and veggies using our every reliable Breville power juicer. I usually work with 1:4 ratio of fruits : vegetables

 My typical no-fuss breakfast of muesli, fruit and plain yogurt

After juicing and taking breakfast, I rush to the barre3 studio (which is 5 minutes away) for a good one hour workout (Barre3 is a combination of 3 disciplines : yoga, pilates and ballet barre). I go home and change. I get to spend time with my son Henri too before he leaves for school. I often bring my daughter Sofia with me to work. 

 My office aka Cintai Corito's Garden is an hour drive from our house so it's actually not that bad. I feel like it's even better to drive there 3 or 4 times a week rather than driving to Makati with all the traffic everyday :) I'm lucky that I have a very serene and relaxing workplace. I do my meetings and all the paperwork until 3 or 4 pm then I head back to Manila. I am back at the house by dinner time or even earlier. I sometimes even have time to cook dinner!

As far as I know, you can really maximize your day if you want to...finding time to do everything from your career, family life and yourself. It's all about creating a schedule that works for you and yes, waking up early! *wink*

Share your thoughts and let me know how you keep your life balanced. Email me at patricia.poniente@gmail.com for any suggestions/concerns/questions/etc.


Cheers,

Mommy Pats