Sian Lloyd learns to balance work and home life

BBC News correspondent Sian Lloyd has a busy and complicated life, with the demands of travelling, juggling the needs of work and family, and working long, irregular hours all taking their toll.

Here she explains her quest to find the secret of balancing work and home life.

Growing up in Wrexham, I was glued to the news from my teenage years.

When BBC Wales brought a roadshow to the town in the late '80s, my burning question was: "How do I get a job in news?" I was given some great advice that day, and I eventually I did the job I had always dreamed about.

I've been a BBC journalist for 20 years now, working for the most part on my home turf. And I still count Wales very much as my home. But over the past few years my job has taken me further afield.

Like now, for example, I've just arrived in Norwich after a very long drive, ready for a court case in the morning. Travelling long distances and sometimes working anti-social hours is part of my job, and it's a job that I still love. After all, you never know when or where a story will break and that's partly what makes it so exciting.

As a Midlands correspondent for BBC network news, I cover some of the most high-profile UK news stories in a very busy patch. I've been combining it with presenting BBC Breakfast some weekends from Salford's MediaCityUK, and during the summer I enjoyed following the work of police forces across the UK for BBC's Crimewatch Roadshow.

I've tried to make the most of some great opportunities but as we all know new challenges can sometimes be stressful. Like many other working mums I try to combine my career with a busy home life.

Juggling work and home isn't something I'd actually had time to think much about. But the work/life balance is important. It's something many people strive for and increasingly it's a topic of debate.

I always find friends are a good sounding board on a subject, and many of mine describe working longer hours, travelling further to find work or have partners working away. And you don't have to look very far to find statistics in news reports of increased work pressures and how modern life is taking its toll.

A survey by the mental health charity Mind in 2014 reported a high rate of workplace stress in Wales, including alarmingly high figures for impacts on after-work drinking and sleeplessness of around 50% of those surveyed.

So for many people life is increasingly busy, juggling work and family, constantly checking mobile phones and for some it can all be a bit too much.

As part of the Live Longer Wales season from BBC Wales, I've been looking at whether this balancing act could actually affect our long-term health and whether there is anything we can do to help ourselves.

Other people's experiences can be useful. Louise Davies is a working mum with a lively four-year-old son called Arthur. Her husband works away from home in the week, so they only get to share family time at the weekends.

She's one of life's optimists with oodles of energy and an infectious laugh. When I met her at the family home in Llanharan it was breakfast time and, like many parents, she was rushing to get her son ready for school.

Louise works full time in a nursery, enabling other parents to fulfil their busy lives. And when I joined her there, I saw first-hand what a busy job she has.

It was interesting to hear her take on modern life. She finds laughter is a good medicine and shares some other tips too.

There are many ways to cope with all that life throws at us. But what's the expert view?

Dr Paul Hewlett has studied the long-term effects of stress. I met him in a busy cafe where people are coming in and out, grabbing a quick lunch.

I wanted to know whether more people are getting stressed, and what we can do about it.

It can seem a complex area, but Paul has a down-to-earth approach and explains some of the common triggers. Having a good diet can really help and he tells me why reaching for that cup of coffee or chocolate is not the right thing to do.

There are always new techniques coming to the fore, and I found it interesting to explore "mindfulness" with practitioner Prof Sinead Brophy from Swansea University.

On a bright sunny day, the city's Clyne Gardens looked almost serene, the ideal place to talk and practice this new-to-me technique - but it's not without its critics.

For many people, simply getting together with friends is a good stress buster. And the experts agree.

So I had every reason to catch up with some of my friends for a natter and get their thoughts about it all. And we only had one glass of wine.