Time for Yourself: What Does That Look Like?

Are you laughing or crying at the thought of taking some time for yourself?

Time appears to move so quickly. We say it every year before the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve. We actually feel it throughout the year but it really “hits us” at the end of the year.

Did you have goals or things you wanted to accomplish? If so, did you meet them or get them done to your satisfaction? Did you make resolutions that you knew you would never strive for? What about those thoughts of losing weight, exercising, reading more and taking care of yourself?

Most of us know it is a good idea, yet rarely make the time for ourselves. We often insist that we don’t have the time or money or others need us and we must comply with what has become our personal patterns or status quo. We say this as if taking time for ourselves is not acceptable; that we are not worthy of some downtime or time to do only what we want to do in the exact way we want to do it.

At any moment, we can put ourselves on hold for someone else. I wonder what the wisdom is in this frame of mind. Surely, I understand emergencies but I’m not speaking of those times your priority demands change. If you find that you are living your life from emergency to emergency, I would question how you make plans and decisions on a daily basis.

Do you have a support system? If so, do you ever call on them? Do you have a partner that you actually “partner” with such that you work to make each other’s lives easier? We all have the same number of hours in a day, in a week, in a month, in a year. What do you choose to do with your time? Might you be saying that you don’t have a choice? You know what? You really do.

Find your time- even if it is only 15 minutes a day. Walk, read, garden, get pampered, close your eyes and dream or nap, push yourself toward something you didn’t think imaginable. Realize your own importance as time does keep moving faster, it seems, each year.