How we spend our time says a lot about who we are… or, so it’s been said. So, we should choose to spend it wisely. We only have so much time to do everything we want.
Often, we teeter between having way too much on our plates and having nothing to do. In the moments we are crazy busy, there seems to be no end in sight. Our to-do list seems to be impossibly long. We’re sure we’ll never be able to accomplish it all. We hustle to work our way through it only to find this causes us to crash and burn.
When we finally cross out that last must-do, we are exhausted and don’t feel up to doing much of anything. All we want to do is rest and we sit there dreading the next round of chaos. Or, perhaps, we’ve forgotten altogether how to relax, so we’re stuck in a state of high alert, anxiously waiting for the next time the ball drops.
All too often, life teaches us to hurry. And, we abide for so long we forget how to take our time. We forget that in taking our time to complete projects, just giving ourselves reasonable expectations to work with, we can work our way through what needs to be done without evoking unhealthy physical, mental, and emotional imbalance that lingers long after the task at hand is complete.
So, yes, how we spend our time is a good indication of who we are. It allows us to announce where we are at in our journey of self-discovery. Have we taken the time to understand we must put our health and well-being first? We must set boundaries when we’re flooded with requests from others.
As hard as it may seem, we must learn to say no.
This is so much harder to do than it seems. It’s a simple word, but in practice, we tend to try to eliminate it altogether from our vocabulary. This is because we’ve grown to expect instant gratification. We want unity, not isolation. We want to feel accepted and we’ve been told “no” never makes friends.
Saying no to others may mean we get some backlash, so at first, it doesn’t feel good. Only when we’ve had some alone time to reconnect with ourselves and truly understand our limitations does the choice seem reasonable.
We may be social creatures by nature and constantly want to people-please and for others to like us. The reality is, however, we all have a breaking point. If we choose not to listen and push past this, we’ll wear ourselves down to nothing and won’t be fun to be around anyway.
By saying yes even though our bodies are screaming no, we will alienate others in the long run. Others are more perspective than we tend to think. We can’t hide imbalance forever. When we become exhausted, everything starts to fall apart.
So, how should we spend our time?
Try, first, to make time in your busy schedule to connect with your own thoughts and understand how you feel. Allow your mind and body to tell you where you’re at honestly and without judgment. Listen when it speaks.
If you feel energized and ready to take on a new challenge, great. But if you can’t stand the thought of stretching yourself any thinner, stop.
Hear this clearly. Truly hear it and listen to what your inner thoughts are telling you. It shouldn’t matter what others are asking of you, this voice should always come first. It knows best because it knows you best. Your intuition and inner voice is a very real part of you that should never be ignored.
Also, it is worth thinking about how much time our life takes to cultivate, how essential it is for us to get new skills, for example in writing books or blog. At the beginning of development, you may need some writing help, in this repairs you can make new acquaintances, which is a vital part of every person.
This voice will tell you how to spend your time. That’s the bottom line. Others may continue to push you or attempt to steer you in another direction, but they aren’t you.
Retraining ourselves to release constant chaos isn’t easy. The world doesn’t promote it. It’s counter-intuitive to how most think and how society operates. And, this is precisely why there are very few people who seem to be healed from societal constraints and demands. There are few who seem at peace. Are you?
