I've said yes to a eight week part time teaching contract, despite being worried about how I will cope with the stress. The money was too good to turn down, and I do need it, because *next* year we'll be having a grand adventure through the UK, Europe and hopefully beyond. 

Thus, the Ladies of Hive community challenge this week is quite appropriate, asking how we balance work and life so it doesn't compromise our well being. 

### "Out of the water, I am nothing." Duke Kahanamoku

I was talking to a yogi friend who teaches science here. I get along well with him - we talk yogic things and he's quite warm and kind in a job where people can be too busy to care. In that regard, it's a nice place to work, because there's a good majority of nice people here, much better than my last school where I felt isolated and alone. We were talking this morning about vatta energy - everything for me is air, so I need things that ground me. Good food, hands in the soil of garden, surfing, nature time. 

Another girlfriend who teaches biology and is also a longboarder gets this too. She messaged me last night and said she'd bought a water proof watch with a timer. 'We'll do some dawnies!' she said. A 'dawnie' is kinda local surf lingo for a dawn patrol, which means going for a surf just as the sun breaks the horizon. Our 'dawnie' is usually paddling out just before first light. There's a good half hour between first light and the sun showing her face. As the year goes on, it gets light earlier, and with Victoria's daylight savings, by mid October first light is 06:15, so that's an hour and a half of surfing I can enjoy before I have to leave the beach bang on 8 am to be in class for 9.10. 

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/riverflows/EpVCcehsauoqbAeBhGMWdzumnAxA4rQgqseYJndWuqgtjN4gGJsbodwHQfBNdeq3ZXi.png)

*That's* how I will survive this. Creating little gaps to be out in nature, particularly surfing, which seems to be the only thing that lowers my cortisol. 


![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/riverflows/Eq5E2CTRDASgfkgdE81gk6JamuesAA1CtJz8it1dFb5ifuxvKp9qHbDcp3dRdp2KFcK.png)


#### “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near one.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

Of course, it means *planning* - I have to know exactly what I'm doing when I walk in. Planning is everything - not just in teaching, but in life. Otherwise those dragons roar their way into the room - chaos, disorder and stress, which bleeds into your life time. 

You can't create the space to *live* without some careful planning. I'm a big fan of writing the meals for the week on the blackboard in the kitchen. It removes the stress of thinking when work has sucked out my ability to think. 

> Mon: Brown rice, veggies and halloumi
> Tues: Lentil Bolagnaise
> Wed: Paneer and Veg curry with Paratha
> Thu: Stir Fry noodles
> Fri: Roast veggies and mushroom gravy. 

Sure, I can break the menu, but at least I know that's what I've got in the fridge because I've thought about it on a Sunday night. 

### “Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day.” ― Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex

If you want a life, you have to figure out some housework short cuts and you cannot expect a perfectly tidy house every day. This morning Jamie and I were in the walk in robe getting in each others way (it's tiny) as he was getting changed and I was transferring last night's washing into vaguley the right spots. It's a Sisyphian job when you both have work clothes and dirty clothes for the shed and the garden. The trick is to not worry that it's not perfect. Sometimes throwing all Jamie's tshirts in a sorting basket and shutting the door is the best we can do. It's the old 'kick it under the bed' trick. But after watching Mum be some damn *perfect* at housework for years, I'm choosing life instead. 

# Does any of this create a work life balance? 

I heard an audio clip on Instagram the other day that says 'work life balance' as a concept is a bad one. It shouldn't be balanced *at all* - we should have more free time and leisure, and space to pursue our passions, and way less time for work. 

I don't expect to feel balanced at the end of this two months. I expect to be frazzled and stressed, but my wallet will be fatter to go and enjoy the 'life' aspect of the equation. 

Hopefully some of my tricks will help me survive until then. 


![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/riverflows/23xedbGc9SNPGMsshyvu1sK7eWrsahkLYD2saTxxuckRutxJTo3FFbp5XU7t2cuKhvUEV.png)

#### "Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired." Jules Renard

We also need to lean in to *not doing*. No matter how busy we are, we schedule in chill time. Maybe it's onlydriving up the road to a river and spending an hour reading or sleeping, or just sitting in the garden - it's important to do *nothing at all*. Meditation is a bit like that for me. It's a time with no screens, no *doing* apart from the Very Important Job of processing your thoughts and giving your brain a rest from thinking. By creating space in this way, there's more room for life to rush in. 

*Bottom line is that I'm going to be using all my tricks to survive the next two months, making sure I get to live a little and not just occupy stress for the whole time. I know I've got this.*