Me-Time: Why It Isn’t Selfish to Take Time for Self-Care and Meditation
Me-Time: Why It Isn’t Selfish to Take Time for Self-Care and Meditation
Has the energy in a room ever changed because someone walked in?
Can you tell if your best friend is anxious without them saying a thing?
It’s easy to sense that a grocery checkout clerk is grumpy despite the fake smile plastered on her face, or that your grandfather is still grieving the loss of his wife of sixty-five years despite his brave attitude. You sense emotions. You feel the energy.
The energy radiates off of others. It’s easy to tell when someone you love has had a bad day the minute they walk in the door.
Perhaps you like to fool yourself that no one sees through your façade. Sure, in the inside you could feel worn out or hollow, but on the outside, you think your inner emotions and energy aren’t perceptible.
Most likely you are fooling few.
People can tell when you are exhausted, resentful, stressed, anxious, depressed, sad, irritable, or angry, especially those who love you.
People can also tell when you are authentically calm, at peace, inspired, motivated, happy, content, excited, relaxed, and full of joy and love.
Sure, even the thought of me-time can make you feel selfish. Your to-do list could be longer than your arm, you could have piles of clean laundry to fold and put away, and your loved ones may miss you because you’ve worked a 60-80 hour week.
However, if you push through without taking time for self-care and meditation, you won’t be giving your best self to those you love, your work, and your life. You can put on a brave face.
They will still sense the undercurrent emotion and energy within you.
Now I’m not suggesting that going away for an entire weekend on a trip with friends is the answer. Nor is scheduling a whole day for yourself at the spa when your kids have hardly seen you all week.
Narcissists have given me-time and self-care a bad name.
The world shouldn’t revolve around you, and you should care and give to those you love, your work, and the community. Investing an hour a day to meditate, do some yoga, go for a run, read a few minutes, and be out in isn’t selfish. It’s powerful.
What kind of world would we have if everyone committed to dedicating one hour to exercise, meditation, time outside, and reading something inspirational?
You may not be able to change the world, but you can set a brilliant example. Be a shining light for those around you. We are all influenced by our social circles.
Start waking up an hour early every day and devoting that time to improving your- body, mind, and spirit. You will be able to show up in your life and have so much more positive energy and emotion to give to all aspects of your life.
Stop living, and start thriving. Everyone in your life deserves the best version of you.
You Could be a Convincing Actress/Actor.
Perhaps no one can tell when you’ve lost your balance, your sparkle, your zest for life. You are a convincing actress or actor, and no one can tell what is going on beneath the surface.
You’re so good at faking it, that you even convince yourself some days that you are a power person who doesn’t need time off to replenish and revitalize.
You think self-care and me-time are either selfish or for losers.
You can lay on a beach or a yoga mat when you retire. You can sleep when you’re dead. You have a career/business/family/life/community to build. You don’t have time to sit around chanting OM.
Guess what? You’re right. You can keep running forward and power through for years successfully.
Your body is loyal. Your body will churn out stress hormones until, years later, it uses up its supply. There hasn’t been a rest for the body, and mind, so it hasn’t ever been able to replenish the cortisol, adrenaline, norepinephrine, dopamine and other hormones.
Stress hormones depleted, the body still won’t give up on you. It will loyally help you power through by stealing your sex hormones and recycling them to fuel your chronic stress response.
Your sexuality will suffer. You’ll lose your interest in intimacy and sex as your sex hormones are stolen to fuel your stress response.
Eventually, the sex hormones will get used up as well. Only then, when it can’t possibly push one more inch, will your body fail you. You’ll be burnt out.
Most people don’t understand what ‘burnt out’ means. They think it is a mental issue, or that someone isn’t ‘stress resilient’ enough. The truth is that when someone becomes burnt out, the body has run for years on chronic stress and inflammation in the body.
At some point, it could be a few years, or a decade, the body burns through all its stress and sex hormones. No one can say precisely how long a body, mind, and soul can force forward through chronic stress before its hormones entirely deplete.
One day, the body can no longer function. Forget powering through a ten-hour workday; you’ll no longer be able to get out of bed without massive willpower.
Do you want to know what is horrifying? It took years to burn your body out, so it will take months or yea