{lost time print, by Lineanograta}
Ah time. It does escape me. I seem to always be searching and wishing for more, cursing my lack of it daily. I think that's a common occurence with many of us though. How often does the thought "I don't have time" enter your mind weekly? Daily?
I even find myself using my lack of time as an excuse (I didn't say a good one) to get out of taking care of myself well. "I would exercise/eat well/read a book/go outside/meet friends/go to the beach/etc but, I just don't have time!"
Is that really a valid statement, though?
On Wednesday, I had dinner with the lovely Betsy from Betsy & Iya and we were talking about the ups and downs of self-employment, the parts that fall short of our idealistic dreams and I mentioned how I really would love to get back into yoga again, but (say it with me class) I just don't have time.
Since I was 16, I've turned to yoga for exercise and balance- I know how much it helps ground me and keep me positive, but when I start to get really busy (aka: when I need grounding and balance the most) I tend to let go of my practice and get lost in work. And lost is a really good description of it. I have a daily sense of overwhelment and burden, I feel scatterbrained and always at the tipping point of burn-out. And I feel like I don't have time to do anything but work work work til the work is done, and that mindset eventually leads me into a semi-depressed state.
On lamenting about my past healthy and happy yoga filled days, Betsy told me about a show she watched on our local PBS station featuring some motivational speaker man (you know the types) who basically said: if you need time for something, make it.
Easy right?
Betsy went on to explain that if something is that important to you, that valuable, then you will figure out how to make time to incorporate it into your life. Eventually, it will become part of your routine and you'll find that you do have time for it, and always did. That's how you get onto the path of creating the life you want to lead, by making time for what's most important to you.
So, on Thursday morning after our invigorating little talk, I woke up with a new mindset. Instead of sleepily dragging myself to the computer to weed through emails and start my blog posts while I wait for the coffee to kick in to start yet. another. long. day. I decided, I'm going to make time for yoga. I did it for an hour, then ate breakfast and made coffee and came to work with a full brain and belly, refreshed and awake with a positive mindset. I set myself up for a nice, productive day. I didn't make myself feel bad for taking time out for myself (like I usually do) and needless to say, I felt pretty awesome.
This morning, I woke up and did it all over again.
There's nothing in the self-employment handbook (wouldn't it be nice if there was such a thing?) that says you have to sacrifice your own health and happiness in order to make your business successful. Yet I think that's what I and many of us end up doing to ourselves- not on purpose, just by nature of wanting to give our business all the energy we can.
But I know, and you know, that balance is what we're all trying to find here. Balance between work and the life that all that hard work is helping us to achieve.
Yoga is just one step for me towards finding that balance, just one thing I've decided is important enough to me that I must make time for it in my days. There's a few more things I'm going to work on too...
What about you? What is there in your life that you feel you need to make more time for? And how are you going to do it? Take action. Make a change. Make time for whatever will help you acheive the balance that you seek, and I'm sure your work will only be the better for it.
