”Me time – what is it, why it’s important and how can we make time for ourselves without looking selfish to family or friends.
Maybe you’ve been somewhere and your phone has run out of juice, and those around you don’t have a charger for your phone. What happens then? I don’t know about others, but I panic. The thought that something could happen and I’m not connected gives me great anxiety. It has a name: FOMO – fear of missing out.
I haven’t been often in such a situation because I’m careful to charge my phone.
But there are people who are more concerned about charging their phone battery than charging their own.
It’s hard to take time for ourselves. We get overwhelmed with worries, lists, responsibilities, being everything to everyone, being there for everyone.
Sometimes we feel guilty about taking time for ourselves. Even when we are tired, stressed, when our own battery is on red, we pull ourselves together, then we become nervous, hyper-sensitive, passive-aggressive. Others don’t understand what’s happening to us. We feel like we’re sacrificing ourselves and no one understands us.
Time for me means a different way of thinking. I want to do a lot, I have goals, I want to get involved in different causes, to be a support for others. But to be able to do all this, my energy needs to be up, I need to feel good.
It’s like on a plane: before take-off, the flight attendants teach us to put on our own oxygen masks before helping others. It’s not a selfish gesture, it’s one of survival and caring for the one next to us.
To be able to behave calmly, enthusiastically, creatively, understandingly, caringly, with others, we need to turn first to ourselves.
For different people, this ‘me time’ can take different forms. For me, for example, it means:
Defining my priorities
Scheduling this time for activities such as:
hairdresser, beautician,
shopping,
time for reading,
time to be bored,
time for driving, just like that, for no particular purpose.
mentor time, psychologist time,
time with a girlfriend/boyfriend,
time to put on a glass of champagne and light a scented candle,
time for writing
time to get the sleep I need
time for a movie, somehow away from the unleashed world
time for my passions
time to go to lunch/dinner/coffee alone
Of course, I don’t do them all in the same week, but I do plan them, rigorously.
A few things are very important to me:
Knowing what we like, what relaxes us, what we enjoy, what gives us energy
Knowing what takes our energy, what brings out the worst in us
To schedule time for ourselves, just as we schedule time for meetings, meetings with clients, colleagues, bosses
To respect ourselves
To maintain discipline even for ourselves.
To let go of guilt. Others will be happy to see us rested, calm, full of ideas, to have us around. No one wants to be with someone eternally tired, eternally ‘busy’ with work, pissed off, or always stuck in the valley of complaint. But we do want to be with people who know their strengths, respect themselves and others, who know how to make time for relaxation, diversification; people who are happy, content, who seem to feel good about themselves.
How would you define this ‘me time’? What would it contain?”
via: spotmedia.ro