Work/Life balance is something that I hear a lot about, but is it actually possible these days?

I had an awesome job in mental health. Awesome because I loved being a tangible help to my clients. We preached self-care and work/life balance to our clients. The company was actually a great company that tried to ensure that its employees practiced what we preached, but in all honesty it was so hard! No matter our intentions there was so much work and I know many co-workers that worked after hours and over the weekend to keep up with the heavy workload. It just seemed to be the nature of the beast.

I wasn’t one of those that took work home, and still, after my 40 hrs, my brain was numb! It was like complete mush! I was awake and up early because I had to commute. I woke up even earlier so that I could spend a few, short quality minutes with God and exercise (maybe, this was hard to do regularly). Get dressed and get on the road for an hour drive to the office. I tried to make the most of my drive to and from work by listening to audiobooks to enjoy a bit of “downtime.”

When I would get home from work it was often too late to do anything really meaningful for myself or my husband. Just shower and go to bed so I could get up early and do it all again the next day. Seriously, I had weeks where I didn’t see the sun because I’d get to the office before the sun rose and I’d leave work after it set, smh. I worked from home mostly during and after Covid and this did help a bit, but in other ways the workload became heavier.

The weekends were full of house chores and errands, with maybe half a day on Sunday for me to veg out. Sometimes I truly felt like I was slowly draining my life away. Just tired and exhausted so much of the time.

I made a drastic change 3 years ago and moved to a third world country where it’s cheap to live. Even though I miss some of the first world amenities, my quality of life and mental health has improved. I work part time and at most 30 hours a week when I choose to. I work online. I actually miss my job at the agency but I don’t miss my hectic schedule.

Anyone have a similar (or different) experience with work/life balance?