Create More Space in your life!

One of the things I’m most passionate about is guiding people in how to live their lives with less stress and more joy.

Our culture seems to be rife with being overworked, overcommitted, overstressed, and over-busy.

Just think back to the last few people you greeted.

When you asked them how they were, was their response, “I’ve been so busy!”?

Maybe someone asked you how you were doing and that was exactly how you answered.

I’ve caught myself doing it and I don’t like it one bit!

It seems to be the most common answer.  We have become a culture that devalues having any space or free time.  It can almost feel like a competition. Who is the busiest and therefore presuming the most productive? We tend to admire productivity and give it a higher rating than having time or space in our lives.

Do you consistently force yourself into the busyness of life?

It may seem that there is no choice. After all, maybe you do have so many responsibilities to handle. Yet, with a culture that is focused only on results and values perceptible activity, you can feel pressured into feeling you always need to be doing “something” to be of value.

If you find yourself simply sitting quietly or not actively engaged in something, do you feel as if you are failing or not a productive citizen?

Or maybe you aren’t aware of these thoughts, but you certainly get a “bad” or “uneasy” feeling, prompting you to find something, anything to do to feel “good” again?

Sound familiar?

I admit it: I’ve done that! I’ve found it challenging to simply “be” and not feel like I need to be doing something that says “productive.” It seems this became more of an issue for me since our electronic/digital age has become so prevalent in our lives.  In my earlier years when we didn’t have the type of connectivity that we do today, it wasn’t an issue.

There are consequences of always being busy and not having some quiet time and “space” in our lives.

I’ve had to make changes to my mindset about being busy, that’s for sure. I’ve learned how vital having more space and quiet time is!

Rest and relaxation is essential to our well being. It’s also essential to our ability to perform at our optimal. So, if we’re always busy, not having any “space” and quiet time, we don’t get any recovery time. This means we can’t perform, do, engage in the things that we want to do with our best selves.

It’s not possible.

It also prevents us from fully enjoying our lives. It’s hard to be present to all that is truly wonderful in the world when we are preoccupied in the world of busyness.

Do you measure your day by how “productive” you were?

What if:

•  you weren’t living with every moment of every day planned out?
• every single day contained some breathing room?
• you could let go of feeling you “need” to be busy all the time to feel worthy and valuable?

And

What if taking some baby steps today opened up more room in your life and you got to start experiencing your life at a more enjoyable level?

Could you give yourself permission say yes to you and say no to consistently being busy?

If you are ready to open up more space for you and delve deeper into a more present and enjoyable life, you can start with these simple baby steps below!

Here are three simple ways to start getting more quiet time and “space” for you:

1. Drive with the radio off the next time you’re in the car.   Welcome the quiet.
2. Take a walk with a loved one without checking your phone for texts, emails or voice mails.  It clears the mind and provides the space to really connect with each other.
3. Cut out one hour of TV, and spend that time thinking about how you can create more space and free time in your life. What can you say no to?
4. Take a 5 minute “Calm Focused Breathing” time out. You’ll be amazed at how even 5 minutes of focused breathing can bring you good feelings of connecting in and getting some needed space!

You may initially find it uncomfortable to be in this free space of not being “busy.” With a little practice, you’ll be amazed how you can begin to cultivate more calm, feel less stressed and then really have the energy and presence to do what it is you really want to do!

You’ll be shining with a new feeling of “space” and what it means to your overall well being!

I’d like to invite you to contribute to others’ well being by sharing how having more “space” works for you. Let’s encourage one another to have more breathing room and more calmness in our lives by sharing how opening up space gives more freedom and gets better results than always being busy and stressed!

Thanks for sharing your success story!