HOW TO LIVE A HEALTHIER LIFE BY CREATING TIME FOR YOURSELF
Are you going through your days pulled in 10 different
directions? Family demands, relationship issues, job
pressures, financial issues or just life demands in general.
The days fly by and you don’t know where the time went
but you do know at the end of the day, you feel exhausted.
You thought you had it under control by keeping those to-
do lists that you could check off and feel like you had
accomplished a lot.
BUT instead, you felt worse as you looked at another day
of endless to-dos that weren’t done. You are physically,
mentally and emotionally depleted. Well today’s show is
going to give you a solution to changing that. Listen in…
Well, first, I will say I’m a recovered “Busy person” – who
in the past saw getting a lot of things done as sort of an
Olympic sport. The part of that that didn’t work was what
the long-term effects of that lifestyle looked like– not
enough self-love, not being in touch with my true needs
and passions, not knowing my true purpose, not having a
quiet centered place to dream and think and finally not
shaping what I wanted my life to become. I hear this from
most of the women I speak with. They know they need to
and want to dedicate some time to themselves.
If you are one of them, listen in and I will give you the self-
care components in my healthy life plan that I have been
using with great success and I’ll even share with you the
results of it.
First, I plan out my week on Sundays in a great planner I
use from Horacio Printing (I will include the link in the
show notes in case you’re in need of an excellent planner)
and I have filled in whatever work or other commitments I
have in my planner. Commitments such as family time,
errands, work meetings, social plans etc.
Second I start every day with spiritual time. This is when I
have my cappuccino, meditate on Scripture, Pray to God
and journal. I have a wonderful app I use on my phone
called Abide which gives me daily scripture, prayers and
reflections. I am refreshed and centered to start my day
after those. But, before I do, I do a 5 – 10-minute stretch
to wake my body up and get me moving.
My spiritual time is non-negotiable. The only thing that
changes about it is the amount of time I do it (can be from
15 minutes to 1 hour) based on the schedule that day.
The third thing I do daily is practice gratitude; it can be as
simple as a mantra such as, “I am beyond blessed” or I
will stop when I am walking home and take in a simple
moment of pleasure and acknowledge it -someone’s
smile, an adorable dog, colorful flowers…there really is
beauty everywhere to notice so I try to take that all in.
The fourth thing I carve into the week is what I call a self-
care home ritual. That is an uninterrupted hour when I do
all the things that make me feel physically pampered. For
me, it is a face mask, a body scrub, a hair mask, scented
body lotion I love, and I have relaxing music playing while I
do this (again, my personal favorites are listed in show
notes). Make any variation of this for yourself – a bubble
bath with scented candles and a glass of wine or however
else you want to make yourself feel like you are in your
own home spa. Get your husband to watch the kids, turn
your phone off and give yourself a full hour. And no, you
absolutely cannot bring your phone with you for this! This
is not time to be distracted or rushed since you are only
doing it one day a week but feel free to do it more often if
you can carve out more time for yourself.
The fifth thing I schedule is my exercise. That is 5x a
week for me – I try get three days of low impact cardio 30 -
60 minutes (for me that is typically elliptical, brisk walking
or a dance class) the other two days I like to do pilates. If
you are not a member of a gym, thanks to YouTube, there
are an abundance of free classes online for all levels of
fitness. One last important note here, I always warm-up
before I do any exercise and I always stretch for at least
10 minutes when I finish my exercise.
The sixth thing I schedule is quiet time for one hour/week
this is my mini creative playground – a scented candle is
lit, I play classical music, I get out a paper and colored
pens, and I let my mind free flow. I write about things I
love, things I want to do, places I’d like to travel, colors
that inspire me, what I’d like my home to look like, people
that I love and want to spend more time with. I also spend
time thinking about purpose and seeing if any visual or
thoughts come up around that. I think about things in the
big picture of my life. I will often write out the areas that fill
my life and see how I am doing in those. I actually draw
this out since I am a visual person. Just to be clear, I am
not Picasso, these are basic sketches, but it allows me to
see these things…I will post an image of what this looks
like in my FB Community. This time is so refreshing. It
lights passions, lets me dream and helps me create the
bigger picture of my life.
I also write in “My Magnus Opus” which is a book I created
to help capture your unique life story to truly understand
yourself, work through the lessons you’ve learned from
traumatic and difficult experiences in your life and
ultimately to leave behind as your legacy for those you
love. Yes, I give myself permission to write about my life
and try to fully understand how I am to use the gifts God
has given me to best serve others in this world.
The seventh thing I do is eliminate all screen and phone
time after 7:30 (unless there is a project I have to get done
with my team that is running late or, I have been trading
calls with someone I love and know we will be speaking at
night). The big one that only happened this year is turning
the t.v. off at night and instead of watching a movie
together before bed, we now read books we love that
inspire us. What a wonderful thing to fall asleep to.
The eighth and final thing I do is before I close my eyes
tell my partner I love him and say 5 things I am grateful for
that happened today. Yes, even on the worst days, I can
find them. I start with the fact that I woke up, have two
eyes to see, two ears to hear, lungs to breathe in fresh air,
love in my heart, a roof over my head and food in my belly.
Yes, it is that simple sometimes.
Give yourself this gift of self-care time today! You will see
how much better you will feel and how a more refreshed
you – spiritually, mentally and physically --can be more
and give more!
To recap the
8 things I do for
self-care in my week are:
1) I plan out my week ahead on Sunday
2) I have daily Spiritual, prayer, journaling and stretching
time
3) I have a daily gratitude mantra
4) I do a Self-care-home ritual one time/week
5) I Exercise 3-5 times per week
6) I schedule quiet dream, life I want to live time once a
week
7) Read daily
8) I End the day with gratitude
So, what does this reformed “busy” person look like
today? My conversion has been wonderful. This is me
today: I have aligned my time with my values and my
passions. I always make time for God. I know my
passions and things that light my heart up. I give myself
creative and dream time and most importantly, I have
stepped into my God-given purpose! Some other
wonderful things that were born out of this process are I
have changed my mindset around money. I have “shed”
things/papers that no longer serve the life I am called to
live as well as the relationships that detract from this life
and this calling.
It is an incredibly powerful and beautiful place which I am
so grateful for. But, I must continually work to keep this
going so I do not go back to the unfulfilling, draining old
ways.
I had to learn, look at what I was doing and how I was
spending my time and finally say ENOUGH. It’s truly time
to take care of me which allows me to take even better
care of others.
I hope you give yourself the gift of one, two or all of these
things to give yourself great love and self-care.
Until next time, I’m sending you so much love and light.
Resources
for products I used mentioned in the blogpost:
Planner:
I have the Blush Book Bound Horizontal one but there are many choices.
I also use everything Horatio Printing so you may want to check out the 2022 Dream Planner Kit.