Imagine this … I’m writing this blog, sitting with my back to the sun. It feels good, warm, and nourishing. Is this the all-important Me Time we spoke about last week?
Well, it isn’t exactly unplugging … I’m on my laptop, thinking about you and what I can share that would make a difference in your life. While I’m ‘working,’ I’m also relaxed all at once.
Of course, time for yourself includes the ‘great getaways,’ brunches with friends, or long hikes that you set on your calendar. These are essential ways for us to recharge our batteries and keep our minds and bodies strong and fit. But the answer to getting that is simple – schedule it.
But perhaps, more importantly, what counts is the quality (and quantity) of the time you take on a daily basis: It is your internal state and how you manage it throughout the day, through the tasks that you must and do perform.
This is the difference maker and the subject of today’s blog – here is the deeper dive that I promised you.
I’ll say it again, it’s how you and I go about the being and the doing of the big and little things in our lives and our work.
What that means is, that it takes choosing to relax, rather than pushing back against what needs to be done, and by saying yes and being with what’s before you.
It can be as simple as practicing a renewing thought and belief that you consciously use in between the busier times of your day. That’s finding time for Being.
And then easing into the business as you face it, in the knowledge that you have to get through it and that “this too shall pass”. This is also finding time for Being.
All too often, we want to place the blame for our stress on someone or something outside ourselves – and it’s true the external has an impact. But when you really look more closely, it’s our own responses and reactions to the ‘external’ that is the real cause behind our building tension, discomfort, and anxiety.
Regularly practicing the Quick Coherence technique is powerful and highly effective. This too, is taking time for yourself – spontaneously, in the very moments before you “do what you must”. It helps you grow your abilities to generate energy and charge your inner batteries.
The best techniques are generated from within you. Take yourself on that walk outside; sit in a chair quietly without the aid of a guided meditation; look out a window and listen to what comes to you, without judgment or censorship of any kind. Focus on just Being.
The problem isn’t what you can do for downtime, it’s more likely when and how often you choose to make time for it … realizing that time is all around you, and often we let it go by unobserved.
On a daily basis, embrace time for yourself. It doesn’t matter the nature of the ritual(s) you choose or how long it takes. I like to sit in the sun in the mornings (and I’m extra grateful when I have the rare opportunity to do so on top of a mountain or a hill). The key is to revel in the fact that no matter what your day entails, you regularly acknowledge yourself in your own special way.
Now is the time – make that change!
