Are you weary, snappy and feel like falling apart? You could easily use some time to yourself.
Nothing seems funny, you’re sapped, easily irritable and think your spirits need to recharge before you can take on anything. It’s a sign you desperately need an early date with ‘Alone time’.
It’s like any other typical evening; dinner is fixed but plenty is still happening in kitchen while you slouch in your favorite love seat in the living room and thoughtlessly surf net over your phone. Else, you could be on your day bed skimming through some run-down nonnews daily or folding linen in the bedroom. This is when your old lady drops in and asks you something that’s faint and inaudible. You couldn’t get anything as your neighbor’s canine has all at once decided to howl raucously outside.
Suddenly, your inner-voice crashes into a long uuuggghhh and you can feel adrenaline rising.
What’s that…what’s happening to you? You couldn’t fathom this right-away but if you’re any good in judging yourself; this is your body and brain begging for some “Alone” time.
Broadly said, it’s time to ‘unplug’.
It’s not only about spending time on your own!
Are you the one who often gets so busy that you’re not left with enough bandwidth to think about your own needs, let alone do anything about them? An eager beaver, you’re incessantly thinking about your work and worried that you might miss the chance to prove yourself, if you aren’t available 24x7. Childcare, eldercare, regular messy errands like paying bills, keeping the house clean; just about anything would jump to throttle your faintest desire to make time for yourself and your needs; all because you’re always on and would do little to change the way things happen to you.
On the face of, it’s looks repressive; like everything just gets thrown in your day. But not every messy moment is sign of sickness. Easy as it is you get caught up in this web of constantly doing things, most of the times you are drawn into the maelstrom-one way or the other. At best nothing hurts but it’s important to occasionally step away from it all, to ward off a complete collapse. That, of course would mean spending some time on your own with yourself. On the contrary by not allowing yourself the comfort of #me-time, you run the risk of a faster burn-out, both emotional and physical.
Fortunately, it’s not so hard to recognize the warning signs that you’ve pushed yourself far enough and it’s time to look after yourself well. By doing so you could top-off with some zip, calm your frayed nerves and enjoy the much-needed happiness. Your mind and body will thank you for properly looking after them!
Sometimes it’s better to take a step back!
Me time is all about being present with yourself; mind and body. It’s a conscious effort to revive and restore you. Even doing something as simple as having a bath, reading a book, going for a walk, performing yoga, getting your hair or nails done and so many more, can course-correct you put you back on rails when you’re alone with your thoughts and inattentive of your surroundings. Pep talk! Nah…believe this, our mind and body are entwined and hooked together and to work side by side, they need to be in sync. When they aren’t, stress and tension manifests as aches and pains in our body and throws everything out of gear.
I guess this explains why #me time is so important and how attempting it every so often would let you figure out the needs of your mind and body and answer likewise. You’d have successfully spent some quality ‘me time’ once you’ve set about a mid-course correction allowing yourself downtime to heal and recover.
Lucky for me, I recognized the early warning signs that I had pushed myself a bit too far just in the nick of time. I noticed that I hadn’t taken a break for long and was long overdue for some time on my own. I needed to make sure that I was pampering myself properly and not being tricked into believing that all’s well with me- one hundred percent!
So, what EXACTLY did I do to live out a better version of me?
It’s a buzzing world around us that makes it nearly impossible to line up some time for ourselves. There is always this revolving door of reasons that pushes ‘me time’ for tomorrow and when tomorrow turns today, everything stays unchanged.
Knowing why, how and when to schedule ‘alone time’ was what charted new bearings for me; a scrupulous good self care trail and an attempt to live out the best version of me.
Again, this could be different for every one of us. We take time-off for ourselves in many different ways. We choose to wake up twenty minutes earlier than the rest of the family and spend a little bit of #me time with ourselves; many prefer a quick morning stroll and few more would love to take a day-off and be left unto themselves in peace.
To cut things short, following pursuits like deep breathing allowed my body to burn off stress induced Fight or Flight mode and reset it to Rest and Recap mode. Once reconnected with mind and body I became aware of every single part of me. And then I knew I was safe.
Contradictions for the most part are irrefutable but if you happen to have mind or body concerns, niggle and stabs and all the gross irascibility that goes with it, you need to delve into them first. Talking to your bosom silently brings comfort and helps quieting your insides.
Ask yourself what has gone wrong to cause the disquiet and look for antidotes to help heal. If there’s something that you cannot repair, that’s okay. Now you know for sure what’s hurting you that you cannot diminish of your own. Corner it and take help if you think that’s the cure or else box it up in the corner of your psyche. It will eventually wane and die down. Once done, it’s a quick note that you’re out of harm’s way.
I never knew all the answers, but accepting this unfamiliarity was in fact wonderfully informing. I was in tune with my mind and body at last. It was kinda hard, took a lot of efforts but ended well for me.
What are you waiting for? Don’t miss your window
Have you ever felt sorry for yourself for taking time off to be ‘Alone’? Do you wait anxiously for guilt pangs to drown you in an emotional grave all because you’ve set aside important work for some apparently thoughtless ‘past time’? I guess shaming yourself like this is gross and inundating. Caring for yourself is the only way to stay a cut above the rest in your life.
If you ask me, to be YOU in your ‘Alone time’ is your magic reset button.
So, go ahead; pamper yourself, take a nap, unplug social media, watch a movie, fete yourself, indulge in a hobby or simply sit idle -do nothing. Take life at your own pace. Go and relax in that comfortable chair in the verandah, chew over your thoughts, do some heart searching and I’m sure you’ll be fired up like never before. Start by giving yourself as little as 5 minutes of “me time”; it’s restorative and reviving but something like a day or more of quietness will change the way you live remarkably.
Of course, nothing promises that you could ever be really “off.” But by watching over, you can be utterly sure that you have begun attending and taking care of yourself. “Always on” doesn’t have to be an end of your personal needs.
It’s just that spending few quieter moments to slacken would ensure that your life scales are not going to tip off center anytime soon.
