Do you feel guilty when you give yourself a “me” day? How about when your kids don’t have anything on their schedule and you have not found something for them to do? Guess what? As a society we have talked ourselves into believing that we have to fill every moment with something that you or (others) have decided is productive. What happened to the days that we could take a day off here and there to do nothing? There is a study out that determines that kids have half as much free time today as 30 years ago and it is not producing the most positive results. The pressure from others to constantly be performing tasks and accomplishing things has trickled down to what we expect from others including our children and it is causing more stress, fatigue and illness.
I have a t-shirt that my kids bought me for Christmas last year that says...today I will do absolutely nothing! It has a picture of Snoopy sleeping on top of his dog house ;-). I wear that t-shirt when I need to remind myself that it is time to put all things aside and just chill out! In fact, I make it a point to put on my calendar days for unstructured time for myself and also my family. I encourage my husband, my children and even my elderly Dad (who seems busier than all of us) to enjoy a day of chilling out.
Try it - what you will find is that you will be able to think more clearly, dream about things that you want to do, plan for things that you have not had time for or just take a break from having to make decisions, accomplish something or change the world. You will find yourself far less stressed about filling every moment for yourself or others and will see some amazing results!
My affirmation for you this week is;
“I will make an effort each week to create unstructured time to chill out, dream, play and listen to my heart”
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