Time Out From Life! How often do you take time out from your day to day life? I am guessing not often enough…..
I certainly don’t, but recently so many things happened, nothing significant but definitely accumulative in nature and I had to say enough! So the week before we were due to go on holidays which can be a pretty stressful week, am I right? We do more work in the week before a holiday than we do over a month ‘just in case’. I stopped taking any bookings and I also said no to the constant changes of appointments that all seemed to happen in one week (it was definitely the week for changes). These two changes in that week made the world of difference to everything else going on at work, in my personal and family life and their needs. I got so much done and we still went on holidays exhausted and returned refreshed just as needed. So while the holiday was actually supposed to be the timeout, the week before and the changes made during that week actually assisted more in terms of feeling like I was taking time out.
But taking time out from life whether it be a holiday or saying no to activities that just don’t seem to be right or working at the time can make a big difference to your own self-care. There will be people that it doesn’t suit, there will be people who will question what you are doing and tell you that it will affect you negatively from whatever perspective they see it from. But deep down, you will have an inner voice and you will know that you need to say ‘enough’ and saying ‘no’ to a few things or taking a break will, in fact, assist you to achieve more over time than constantly trying to push through and not listening to your inner knowing.
Why don’t we listen to that inner knowing? Usually to keep others happy, to meet the social norms that we ‘feel’ that we ‘should’. These will all be different for everyone, however, they exist and becoming aware of them and becoming aware of ‘who you are’ will assist you to recognise this and make the changes or decisions that will benefit yourself firstly and others secondly as the ‘busyness’ of life continues.
Here are some ways to take time out from life:
- Switch off to social media.
- Take a short break even a weekend away, go camping, stay somewhere else.
- Change the routine of activities of the weekend if you are staying home.
- Say ‘no’ to the social outings that you don’t feel like going to for a week or so to allow more time for yourself.
- Say ‘yes’ to activities that excite you, relax you, entertain you.
- Say ‘no’ to extra workload for a specific period of time.
- Say ‘no’ to those that always put themselves first while always needing you to be there for them.
- Take a tea/coffee break and read something you love or just sit and stare.
- Walk, and walk somewhere different i.e. the beach, the bush, the park
- Book and go on a retreat.
- Stop making the beds for a week.
- Stop watching any screen time at night and read ‘that’ book.
Taking the time to think about what you want to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to will benefit you and assist you to take time out from life for a bit will be a massive benefit to your self-care and your ability to achieve whatever it is you wish in the future.
So when I am taking Time Out from Life I may not be writing posts but I am back taking bookings now.
There are so many ways to take a break and regain that focus and love of life, make sure you take the time to take Time Out.
Are you struggling to take time out? Do you think that you need to focus more on your self-care and lifestyle? Contact me masteryofdoing@gmail.com
A couple of books to add to your reading list when you do switch off the screen
- Any Brene Brown books, my favourite is ‘Daring Greatly’ (click on the ‘Daring’ or ‘Brene’ link in this sentence to shoot through to Booktopia.
- If you are female and find the constant overwhelm of life try ‘Wife Drought’ by Annabel Crabb.
Here is a retreat being run by a colleague of mine the US, it is being held in India in 2018 and is worth considering if you need to some RnR.
https://www.nourishbyjd.com/retreats
Have a great weekend!
Bronwyn
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