Creating Space
In the last couple weeks when talking casually with people, some phrases that I have heard are “I’m crazy busy” and “I really haven’t had time to think” and “between work and kids I am just trying to survive.”
I get it.
Actions happening around us can take over and drive us through out our day. We move from accomplishing thing to thing and at times are satisfied with our productiveness but at the same time wonder where our day went and why we feel exhausted and flat. When was the last time you felt satisfied in your work? Not just “productive satisfied” but the feeling that you are accomplishing your life’s dream and it leaves you so energized inside you feel as if you can do anything? Where did that feeling go, and how do we claim that back?
The first step is to create space in yourself to start cultivating an environment that enlightens what is most important to you.
You may answer, “Well, Kate, I already know what is most important to me. It is my kids.” Yet we can carve out more time to spend with our kids and not be fulfilled. Notice I didn’t say creating space in your day…but creating space in yourself.
The energy we expend is exponential. Energy that feels overwhelmingly satisfying to us, the kind that “lights us up” and makes us feel as if we will burst inside with enthusiasm is something that takes up space inside us and can grow. Likewise, energy spent on tasks that leave us drained and feeling “blocked” can take up space and grow. We can get so “crazy busy” that it leaves no room inside us to locate the dreams that fulfill us most.
There is a first step. Take time to be with yourself to listen to what your desires really are. It doesn’t have to be a long amount of time. It doesn’t have to be in the Bahamas (although you won’t hear me argue against that!). It just needs to be time where it is quiet and it works for you to take some deep long breaths, get out of the chatter in your head, and to listen to what is in your core.
For some this is meditation, for some this is staring at the sky, for some this is time in nature, for some it is writing in a journal. Find a ritual that works for you because practice is important. Ritual is important. Your body will eventually become used to the ritual and want to oblige. Where at first you only hear chatter of your day (I call this filtering) eventually your brain will rest and you will hear what is deeper…what you are to do with this space while you are here on earth. Once you discover that, you will cultivate what really counts and find satisfaction in your to-do list at work, with your kids and in your life.
