Hello and welcome to Day 9 of the Spring Cleaning for Your Soul Challenge. I hope you’re enjoying following along with the enlightening exercises.
For Day 9 of your soul cleanse and purge process, I will touch upon the concept of simplifying our schedule. Many people don’t enjoy following a routine. They feel that it hampers their personal freedom.
Another reason why having a schedule can seem so stifling is that we then become tempted to fill up any open spot on the calendar with more activities and events.
Then, when we suddenly get the urge to do something spontaneous, we can’t because our every minute is booked up.
In order to really enjoy the beauty of this fleeting spring season, we must give ourselves the gift of time. This is very important to our sense of inner peace and well being.
If you really crave a day of total freedom, then give that to your mind and spirit. The joy of having total freedom to just follow your inner rhythms and center yourself with nature, is unsurpassed in its ability to satisfy.
But how do you give yourself the gift of a free day to do whatever you want, when there is always that constant pressure to cram more and more into your schedule?
The solution is more simple than one might think. Just pencil in a day for yourself, to go with your inner flow and do whatever your heart desires.
-What will you do with your free day? That is entirely up to you. Just think of all the things you would do if you weren’t so pressed for time.
-Would you take a leisurely walk along a babbling stream?
-Would you fill your day with music – play the piano, or listen to your favorite tunes?
-Would you pick up your favorite crafting project – and lose yourself in the grounding act of creating something using your own two hands?
-Would you write a short story or a poem?
-Would you simply take a seat outside in the warm sunshine, and do nothing at all?
This is the beauty of taking a day to whatever you like and not letting anyone else dictate when you do with your day. With life so hectic and full of obligations, it doesn’t get any better than saying “Sorry, I’m busy that day,” and then just being busy with whatever brings you pleasure for the time being.
In addition to penciling in your own day of leisure, you can also set some ground rules for how you book your life. You don’t have to tell anyone else what your rules are. You can simply revel in fact that you are taking control of your own life for your own happiness and wellbeing.
Journaling Exercise: Set Rules for How You Plan Out Your Days, Weeks, Months
Today’s journaling exercise will have a decidedly practical feel but the practical limitations you set forth for yourself will be based in how you feel. So we’re using our emotional well being to set limits for the use of our time, when turns out to be a practical way to live.
Sit with your pen and notebook. Write down the facts of your current schedule that stress you out.
The last time you were “very busy,” what did you actually have going on that caused you to lose your ability to be in the moment?
Were you double booked for a single day?
Did you have conflicting events going on that made it impossible to immerse yourself in any one activity because your mind kept jumping ahead to the next thing?
Did the weekend fly by too quickly, with no actual down time for you to spend time relaxing and doing the things you actually want to do?
Based on what you come up with, set some firm rules on how you will schedule your calendar so as to increase pleasure in your leisure activities and avoid that feeling of social overwhelm or commitment to too many obligations.
Set Your Intention:
Commitments only become so when we put them into action. So set an intention to follow through with the scheduling rules that you have set which are designed to help you clear some room in your calendar to do the things you want to do.
Next time someone asks if you can help out with X or Y, plan ahead on how you will politely and effectively address this so as not to land yourself in the same, overbooked and stress filled place.
What will you say?
Remember that the cup of your well being must be replenished before you can be a giver to someone else.
Stay Safe and Be Well
The Positive Professional 🙂
The Positive Professional 