Be kind to yourself and listen to your body more often
In a world where everything is based on speed, performance and just getting on with things as efficient as possible, it is hard to sometimes take a timeout and listen to us. However, it is vital and essential we do this. We need to make time for ourselves, for our interests to spend time with other people and sometimes we even need a longer timeout to take care of ourselves. We are no good to others around us if we are not kind and happy with ourselves and our mind. Now having piece of mind and spending time with us is sometimes easier and sometimes harder than we think.
It is very important to again understand the significance of having that alone time for us where we only do things that feel good to us and we enjoy. This can be physical things and activities such as some form of exercise or meeting friends for a great meal. But it can also be very small and insignificant things such as learning to breath or just going for a walk and thinking about our day and our life. It is not important what we spend this time with, it is just important that it exists and has a space in our life.
Many of us don’t think me time as being necessary and very often this is the first thing people are willing to sacrifice. This is very often a big mistake as we are then very quickly torn into the feeling that we only live for and do things for others around us, and we forget to enjoy life as a whole. Me time can give us back this balance between working and being responsible for the wellbeing of others around us, but also being well ourselves, having that balance is essential for happiness in life.
In the beginning, we should actively plan me time into our week. What is the one day or one h a week that we have for ourselves? Also, the amount of time we dedicate to ourselves varies from person to person. We have to see what makes us happy. For me for example, I have recently started to do yoga. That one hour a week is just for myself, to make me feel good, where I can just forget everything around me. This one hour is therefore gold for my happiness and wellbeing every single week. I defend this time like a lion, with no meeting or appointment distracting this that could be of significance to keep me from using this one hour for myself.
Taking time for ourselves is something that we therefore in the beginning actively have to do. Over time, we should be able to get to the point more and more, where we integrate me time into our day. We can just start doing a breathing exercise once a day where we have that moment of reflection or go for a walk over lunch to have some fresh air. More and more of those me moments will come naturally integrated into our days over time and the more we consciously integrate those in our life. Becoming aware of the significance of those moments and the value they carry is the first step here.
Me time can but does not always have to involve other people as well. For some meeting friends and family can be me time, for others, they just want to focus on themselves. The choice how we want to spend that time is ours, we just must make sure it is there and has a significant space in our often-hectic life. Me time is for us and for us only, and what we want to do there does not matter, if it gives us relaxation and happiness.
Claiming time for ourselves it therefore not a sign of weakness but of strengths. We can be kind to ourselves and openly talk about needing to take this time in our day to day routines and lives. It will make us more resilient to face challenges and lead to a significant increase in happiness over time. Take your me time and be kind to yourself – it will benefit everyone in your life for good.
