Little Things, Big Results

A city truck just eased by my house using one of those big leaf-suckers to clean up the leaves I blew to the curb a couple of days ago.

In the craziness of caregiving, it’s easy to get the feeling that fun is being sucked out of life like someone is using one of those big leaf-sucker machines.

Take a moment and try this simple exercise:

Ask yourself what you’d do for fun if you had:

2–5 minutes

5–30 minutes

30 minutes to ½ day

More than ½ day

Money is no object. The person for whom you will be caring is taken care of. Your family is taken care of.

Now, get to work with your ideas.

Tick, tick, tick.

Ok … now, let’s realize that on an everyday basis, you may not get more than ½ day to ease away from your responsibilities. You might not even be able to get 30 minutes to ½ day.

So, the question is, “What would you do if you had 5–30 minutes, or 2–5 minutes?”

The key is to find things that take short bits of time … mini-vacations … that can lower your stress and craziness level, raise your enjoyment-of-life level, and keep you on an even keel.

In 2–5 minutes, you can listen to a song, do part of a crossword, laugh at a cartoon, get a hug, tell someone you love them, hear someone tell you they love you, and do all kinds of small, good things.

Neuroscience research shows that little things we do to enjoy life have a profoundly healthy effect on our mental and physical health.

In other words, they can keep us from going crazy.