January 8

Make Time for Yourself

Give yourself time and space to focus on your soul needs, your self-care and yourself. Know that you are worth of this.

Time is probable your most difficult step. You already have your days filled with responsibilities and things you must do. Often you are too busy to think about caring for yourself never mind caring and nurturing your inner soul and dreams. But if you don’t take the time to nurture yourself you may never become who you are at your deepest level.

I can hear you now, saying I don’t have time to imagine and nurture my dreams and inner desires or myself. I am too busy taking care of others and everyday responsibilities. But yet you are taking the time to read this book. That means you want to take care of your own self- to become true to yourself, to live your dreams. This means you must take time for self-care, self-nurturing, dreaming, discovering who you have been, who you are now and who you want to become.

You must take time to listen to your inner self, your soul to discover, your authentic self, your deepest dreams and wishes.

A combination of contemplation, research, activities, life experiences and actions are needed to move from the life you have now to the life you dream of. In order to do that you have to give yourself the respect you deserve and the time you need to dream, imagine, vision, explore, make changes, try new things, move forward into living each day guided by your vision into the life you desire and deserve.  

If you need someone else’s permission – then I give you that permission. In fact, I insist that you take some time each day for yourself. Start with about 15 minutes then build it up.

I began with taking a few minutes to have a cup of tea in peace before the kids woke up and the daily routines and chores began. Once they were all in school I increase that time to half an hour meditation and journaling. Eventually, I added a daily hour walk and self-care activities. Now taking time for myself is normal and I do it regularly through-out the day.

Choose a time that works best for you to have some quiet time. It is best if you make this the same time every day. Early mornings are usually the best time for solitude and quiet. Evening sometimes works but often things interfere with an evening ritual. Look over your day carefully and find a time that will allow you at least a half hour – even if you begin by taking fifteen minutes make sure it can grow into a half hour.

Try out a couple of different times and see what works best. To test the times, just sit and have some coffee or tea or read the newspaper or magazine or write in a journal. It really doesn’t matter at this point what matters is that you find a time that you can have to yourself and that you will take for yourself consistently. 

Set Boundaries You must respect and honor yourself and believe that you are important. If you do then others will respect your personal space and time. In the end it will be just as important to those you love that you are living through your authentic self each day.

Assignment

Give yourself time for dreams to emerge, vision to become clear and inspiration for making those dreams come true.  Pick a time that you can have a few minutes to yourself. Each day this week take 15 minutes to just sit, think, read, and/or have a cup of tea (or a glass of wine!)

 Create Sacred Time and Space