This week I will be moving house into my new home and what’s so prevalent to me is how easy it has become not to prioritise timeout. Because of this, I have seen my pain levels surge, my sleep has become irregular and stress has dominated.
The chaos that surrounds me of boxes and packing to then relocate to my new home has forced me to really think about how I can put more importance on putting time aside just for me.
I’d found that the list of things to do for the move grows and these demanding tasks are what take over. Instead, I’ve chosen to take the walk down to my yoga studio and let myself take time off from the chaos of my life right now. At home, practising yoga surrounded by boxes isn’t relaxing at all. So I choose to take extra time out of my day to walk down to my studio and have that reset away from everything. That hour in that studio is much needed (and deserved) respite from my life at the moment. It gives me space from that long “to-do” list so that I can come back to it with a clearer mind.
For me, it’s really obvious when I feel that balance being thrown out. It’s most obvious in my pain levels that overtake everything else. This is when I know I need to change what I’m doing and take more “me” time.
But for others, it isn’t so obvious. If we don’t have those big indicators that it’s time to slow down and take some time off, it can manifest in ways we can choose to ignore until it might be too late to manage.
It is so important to always create that space for ourselves within those more demanding tasks before it gets out of hand.
Where in your life can you focus on time out and prioritise that time for yourself?