By Follow Your Own Rhythm
We live busy, fast paced lives where our work load and daily responsibilities constantly overwhelm us. Stress, anxiety, and depression are all too common in our society, all stemming from being too busy to take care of ourselves and to focus on what matters.
Self-care is so important, yet we seldom put it at the top of our priority list. Instead, we engage in meaningless activities that cause us stress and deplete our energy, and we practice unhealthy habits and behaviors that focus more on going and doing, than on sitting still and just being.
The one thing that we all have in common, is that we all have a limited amount of time and energy. Therefore, time and energy are precious commodities. If you spend your limited time and energy on things that stress you out, then those small stressful moments will add up to an overall stressful and unfulfilling life.
In this day and age, I don't think being busy equates to being productive and effective. I think being busy equates to seeming like we are doing a lot, but not actually getting anywhere. Being busy ultimately stems from the failure to embrace and enjoy the present moment.
So if you want to stop being so stressed and drained all the time and create more space for what you love, then read on to learn...
3 Ways to Make Space for What Matters in Your Life (with practical exercises)
1. Identify and eliminate the parts of your life that create the most stress and do not serve you
Make a list of everything that you do on an average week. Include everything from the people you see, conversations you have, things you do, responsibilities you have, places you have to go, etc. Include mundane and obvious tasks as well such as taking a shower, brushing your teeth, eating breakfast, driving to work, grocery shopping, and so on.
Now circle the activities on your list that overwhelm you, drain your energy, stress you out, do not serve you or benefit you, or that you don’t need in your life.
For now, ignore the activities that stress you out but that you cannot change or eliminate (such as taking a shower or going to work for example).
For those circled activities that remain, I want you to eliminate them from your day to day life.
For example, if one of the draining habits you named is scrolling through Facebook or Instagram everyday, then the next time you catch yourself doing that, I want you to make a conscious effort to stop. It’s really as simple as that. It starts with becoming aware of the patterns, and ends with taking action to stop it from continuing.
I want you to pay attention to these things that stress you out, and seriously eliminate them from your life.
If that means telling your coworker to stop dumping their complaints onto you, telling your friend to stop gossiping about other people, or avoiding negative people, the news, or social media, then that’s what you shall do. You only have an x amount of brain power and time in the day, so are you going to use that up on meaningless activities and conversations? I hope not! ;)
2. Be selfish with your self care
It’s okay to want to spend time on yourself and on doing things that you love. You should never feel guilty or bad about wanting to nourish your mind, body, and soul. The only way you can give your best self to others, is by taking care of yourself first.
So now, I want you to make a list of all of those things that you love to do, want to do more of, or new activities you want to incorporate into your life.
Since you are already so busy, the only way to do more of what you love, is to trade your time. Replace draining activities with enlivening ones. You can’t afford to add MORE onto your plate since you already have so much going on and since you only have a limited amount of time and energy.
So you MUST eliminate the circled activities under tip #1 in order to make room for these new, self-loving, self-nourishing, self-fulfilling, and self-empowering activities.
If a friend asks you to go out on a Friday night for a drink but you’d much rather stay home and read a book, don’t be afraid to say no! You don’t have to be a people pleaser, especially if it doesn’t come from a genuine place of love and desire.
We are so conditioned in this society to give, give, give, especially women, and to prioritize everyone else’s needs over our own. How can we constantly give and please if don’t give to ourselves?
So don’t feel guilty to be a little selfish with your personal needs and wants! It’s the only way you can make your best self come to life!
3. Reprioritize your responsibilities
Now that you have eliminated stressful habits from your list and added some new self-nourishing ones, create a fresh new list with your new weekly responsibilities.
Yes, self-care is a responsibility.
Put them in order of most important and urgent to least important and urgent.
Just a rule of thumb, going to the bank, cleaning, running errands, going shopping, and having a drink should not be at the top of your list.
The activities that rejuvenate and energize you, help you recharge, bring you joy and fulfillment, and have meaning and purpose, are the ones that should be at the top of the list.
Keep this priority list in mind when you have to make a choice between listening to an inspirational podcast or going shopping. The shopping can wait. (I am not suggesting that you neglect these responsibilities, but don’t make a habit of deeming them more important than self-nourishing activities).
Another tip for the responsibilities that you have that are draining or boring but you have to do such as grocery shopping, cleaning, or driving to work, I recommend spicing them up a little or making them fun in some way.
For example, thanks to our new age technology, you can listen to an inspirational or informational audio book or video series while you sit in traffic to make it more fun and to add more value to your time.
You can also switch up your shopping or showering routine to add more variety and adventure to those mundane tasks. You can also make cleaning fun by playing music in the background and dancing and singing while you clean. Just a thought. :)
The point is, for every responsibility that you have, it is up to you to add meaning to them, otherwise they become draining and stressful. And for the ones you can’t add meaning to, it is probably time to reevaluate them or let them go.
I hope these tips will help create more space in your life for those activities that matter, bring you joy, give you meaning, and provide nourishment for your soul!
Let me know in the comments section how your list making went and what activities you will trade in for more fulfilling ones!
SHARE THIS ARTICLE if you thought it was helpful!
Find out why your manifestation is not coming or why it's delayed. These 5 spiritual reasons will give you a greater understanding of what is going on behind the scenes so you are not left wondering or thinking that the universe forgot about you.
In this video I share 9 signs that you have met members of your soul tribe and soul family, whether platonic or romantic.
In this video I share 5 ways to quickly raise your vibration when you're in a funk, as well as why it's so important to remain in a high vibration.
In this post I share the 3 biggest, best, most life changing decisions that completely transformed my world and put me on the path to living my most authentic, soul aligned life. I also share some ways that you can know if you are making the right decision, and hopefully you can be inspired to make them too.
In this post, I share 3 practical ways that you can connect with your deeper self when you're feeling lost, alone, or spiritually off.
In this post, I share 5 specific ways that your intuition tries to talk to you or send you messages. These are all things that come from within, and paying attention to it will help you live more aligned to your authentic self.
In this post, I talk about what “passion” means, how it relates to your life purpose, and some tips on how to discover your passion.
In this video I talk about the basics of numerology to give you a better understanding, and what your birthday and name reveals about you. I show you how to calculate your 4 main numbers which is your life path derived from your birthday, and your soul urge, personality, and destiny number derived from your full name. I also show you how to find your personal year cycle.
In this video, I share 10 misconceptions about what it means to be a spiritual person. These misconceptions I talk about are false beliefs we have, as spiritual people, about what it means to be spiritual so that you can get inspired to experience life more fully and feel more free to be yourself!
In this video, I talk about the difference between when your ego and fear is telling you not to do something in order to protect you and when your intuition is trying to guide you despite the fear that you feel. I discuss 3 different situations in which fear creeps up and how to tell when your true self is speaking to you.
In this video I share what to do after a breakup and how to find happiness being single and alone.
In this video, I share my perspective on what I believe our soul purpose and spiritual mission is here on earth as humans.
This is a free guided meditation to help you connect with your higher, true, authentic self.
In this video, we talk about why you were born with the gifts that you have, and the importance of sharing them with others!
In this video, I share my story of spiritual awakening and the journey that led up to it, what it felt like and what I realized, and all the ways it's transformed me. I also talk about my divorce, the dark night of the soul, self-love, and how you will know when you have found YOUR truth.
In this video, I take you through the emotional process of achieving your goals, including the feelings of fear, doubt and anxiety that creep in, and HOW to overcome them so you can stay motivated and keep moving forward.
In this video, we are talking about what self-empowerment is and why it’s so important, tips on how to become more empowered, and I will also be introducing a powerful tool that I created that will help you stay in your power each day!
In this video, we are talking about rejection, why it hurts so much, the psychology behind why we take it personally, and 4 tips and new perspectives that will make it easier for you to deal with rejection so you can regain your confidence.
In this video, I go into detail about what intuition is, why we have intuition, how to live intuitively, how to tell when your intuition is speaking to you, how to strengthen your intuition, how to use it when making decisions, and much more!
Your birthday holds powerful energy, and if you use it wisely, you can maximize the energies to let go of what no longer serves you, manifest new goals and desires, and reconnect with your deeper self. Check out this video for tips on spiritual practices for your birthday!
We face tremendous pressure in this world to fit in, because if we express our true selves, we face the possibility of rejection, disapproval, and judgment. However, nothing will make you feel more whole than being authentic. So in this video, I share with you 3 ways to make it easier to be yourself.
If you are on a soul searching journey and are wanting to SPEED UP the process, find your true self, connect to a higher truth, and have a spiritual awakening, then in this video I offer 7 tips that will help you do that!
Do you embrace ALL of who you are or just the parts of you that culture has told you is lovable? And what happens to the “other” parts of you? Where does it go? In this video, I discuss what the shadow self is and why it’s so important to integrate it in order to be your full, whole, authentic self.
I feel like often times "living spiritually" or being on a spiritual path gets misunderstood. In this video, I clarify what it actually means to be on this spiritual journey, so we can all live aligned to our true purpose.
I believe that this world pandemic is here to teach us a lot. It’s giving us lots of opportunities to grow as a person, heal, and become aligned with our true selves . In this video, I compiled 11 spiritual lessons you can learn from the Covid-19 pandemic that will catapult your spiritual evolution, and bring you lots of peace.
Fear is a pretty powerful force that will take over our mind if left unchecked. But we CAN control it with the right tools and mindset. In this video, I share how to move our of fear and into a calmer state of being.
Do you have a lot of time on your hands? Are you often alone but don’t know how to enjoy yourself? Do you dread being alone? Read on to learn how to love your own company.
This is a tough time, and it’s easy to become worried and stressed, however, that’s no fun and no one wants to live that way. Here are 3 helpful mindsets to adopt to stay sane, calm, and healthy during this chaotic time!
What does it mean to “be?” Why do we need to take a break from “doing?” Why is it so important to incorporate more “being” into our life? In this blog post, I share a spiritual perspective on the art of being and why I decided to take a break from my self-created responsibilities and live more in flow with life.
Confidence is an inside job. Real, true, deep and lasting confidence cannot be attained by doing something on the outside or by getting lots of compliments and being liked by others. The key to radiant self-confidence is to develop a positive relationship with yourself. Read on to learn the 5 essential keys to true and lasting confidence.