‘Me’ Time

I was taking my own advice recently and I took a day off to catch-up on some reading when I came across this quote
“Being unstoppably on the go is considered to be the behavior of responsible adults; therefore, we usually resist the interludes offered by ill health.” (from Practice Changing Your Mind by Wendy Beall)
 
This totally resonated with me as I so often hear from clients and friends about how they had this cold or that flu, but didn’t have time to take off and just had to carry on. This is of course totally reinforced by marketing practices; I also spent some time watching TV when I was in the US recently and I became aware of how much advertising encourages this unhealthy practice. All sorts of medications are available to help us continue and get back to work when we are feeling unwell. So rather than using our sick days to stand still (or more realistically to lie still) and take some time out to think and explore where we are in life and how we feel about ourselves, we either refuse to take time off or we rush back to the treadmill as quickly as possible. When we could be recognizing a cold or flu as a sign that we need to slow down and turn inward. Instead we often feel compelled to soldier on. So rather than acknowledging the usefulness of an illness or injury that temporarily incapacitates us, we restlessly insist upon keeping on going.

From the holistic perspective; ill health is always a message. It’s a message from the body to the mind saying “slow down”—a message from you to you! Unfortunately so many of us rush to ignore it and get back into our busy routines as soon as we can. Often we rush back to work in order to avoid time with just ourselves. This leads to imbalance in our lives and we instead live life with a sense of life just rushing along. Maybe even a sense of life passing us by? We lose the joy and beauty in the everyday unless we slow down.

Ill-health is a reminder to slow-down and be. When we take that time we often reconnect with our creative aspects. I.e. While on vacation I pulled out my art supplies and took time to sit around drawing and painting. This is usually something I’m going to do “when I have time”. By slowing down on vacation, reading and watching TV I then found the time! And nurturing my creative aspect became a priority. I had fun and wondered why I don’t do this more often. It’s far too simple sometimes to get caught up in the busy-ness of day to day. So I have decided to book “me time” more often. I actually have put time in my calendar to follow my creative pursuits. If I didn’t book this time I would forget and get caught up again. We need to pay close attention to our personal needs or we often lose sight of them.

Sometimes it can be even simpler. For example I suggest you don’t suppress cold symptoms! When your head is full of mucous—do you want to keep it in or get rid of it? Sometimes we actually need a cold to clean out our body!

Taking time to rest and repair may also allow us to put parts of our lives into perspective. For example I have been thinking about whether the deadlines we put on ourselves real or imaginary. A good friend of mine helped me with that. David Anderson is a Registered Piano Tuner (and very talented musician). He said to me one day “Have to go…there’s a piano lying on the floor bleeding!” When I get caught up in deadlines and emergencies I catch myself and check if it’s real or exaggerated…life or death? I don’t think so!

So next time you catch a cold or go down with the flu take time out to look after yourself. Drink plenty of fluids, eat lightly and take time to rest. Not only will your body appreciate it, but also so will the other aspects of you; your mind, emotions and spirit.

And next time you are feeling somewhat under the weather instead of putting on a brave front and refusing to submit to illness, take time out to retreat into yourself and renew your relationship with those aspects of you that are lost in the daily routines.
           
Or better still don’t wait until you are feeling ill. Take a “sunshine” day! Take a day off when you are feeling good and enjoy “playing hooky” from your life. Take the time to do some things you haven’t done in a while. Too much in one go? Try beginning with a half-day. I believe if you take time to play you won’t need to take time being sick. Take sunshine days instead of sick days and you won’t need the sick days!