How often do you take time out for yourself? Do you have a daily timeout practice, weekly or perhaps once or twice a year? Or do you just keep going all day, everyday until you fall into bed at night exhausted?
Lets talk about why taking time out is essential for a healthy balanced life.
Because YOU are important – it’s a part of looking after the most important person in your life!
We often fall into roles in life with the belief that we have to put our personal needs second or maybe even last…. the role of a parent, carer, student, worker, business owner, daughter, son, teacher, friend… and the list goes on. Our beliefs may have formed from an early age with influences through our family of origin, schooling, social influences, religious practices or perhaps beliefs we have formed through discussions with friends, partners or colleagues later in life. How can we look after ourselves and have a balanced lifestyle with these nagging beliefs? How do we have timeout without guilt or other embedded negative feelings? This is challenging for many people.I remember being told (by a former boss) that achieving a work/life balance is an impossible goal – I thought, are you kidding me? (admittedly, I was probably trying to secure the most suitable work hours that worked for me at the time, and so perhaps that was his way of saying no). However, anything is achievable if you have the mindset to support it. YOU are important and a part of nurturing yourself is to take time out in whatever form that is for you. This is called Self Love and you deserve every bit of it.
Your HEALTH is important!
The only person responsible for your health is you. Every thought, belief, action and behaviour can impact on our health on some level. If we never take time to quieten our mind, nurture our physical needs through exercise or self-care practices like massage, or ponder our beliefs about how the world works and what is our purpose, then we are really just on a roller-coaster ride that doesn’t stop to rest, rejuvenate, reflect, reboot and rebirth (grow). And then there’s our adrenal glands… this isn’t the place to go into how they function and the potential results of stress on the adrenals…. just remember that sometimes we think we are handling stress, but our body tells us different and the adrenals take the brunt of this. If you are feeling anxious, tired, physically sore or inflamed or numerous other symptoms (just look into Adrenal Fatigue), these could be signs that your adrenals are fatigued. Perhaps its time to stop and listen to your body (it knows best), even if you think you enjoy the roller-coaster, your body may not.
How to take time out! Food for thought…
Daily – Take time to breathe mindfully, meditate, take a walk somewhere that brings you calm, stretch your body, swim, read a book, chat (actually face to face or on the phone…texting has taken over our communication!) to someone you enjoy, make a meal that you love and eat it without distraction of others or electronics, look up to the sky, out to sea or sit with nature and think about all the things you are grateful for, have a bath…you may notice that these are all slow things…yes heading to the gym and doing a workout is also timeout, just remember to add some things in to your day that slow you down both physically and mentally and bring you calm and balance.
Weekly – All of the daily activities listed above would also be great to do once a week. Or maybe go out with people that you have enjoy a laugh with, go on a hike, see a movie, have a massage, try a new activity – there are so many to choose from – just ask Google!
Yearly – book that holiday or retreat. Will timeout for you mean being totally on your own or with others? Will it mean a holiday with family or without? Both are important – I love to go away with friends or family however I love the Ahhhhh feeling of going away where no one knows who I am… this could be participating in a course for the weekend or going on a health retreat. I find there is no better way to just be ME (whatever I am on that day – after all, we are never the same as we were yesterday) than to book into a course or a retreat. Whether I am familiar with the content that will be covered or not, there will always be some self-learning and most importantly, self-love experienced during my timeout 😊
Look after YOU – love YOU - take timeout – RETREAT to a place that brings you calm – Relax, Reconnect, Rejuvenate.
Narelle Jones - Pilates Instructor, Retreat Facilitator
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