Time To Breathe
Over the past eighteen months I have been in the privileged position of having a lot more time than usual. Living solo while so much of the outside world was temporarily closed (and while sometimes restrictions resulted in being unable to leave my house except for essential reasons) meant that many of the activities I normally participate in were no longer happening.
After the initial shock of all that unstructured time, I began to enjoy it. I started to work on projects I’d been considering for years, spent time playing the piano, binged watched a few TV dramas. And read a lot of books.
Now, as the world opens up I find my diary is starting to get full again — rehearsals restart, I make plans with friends and family, I schedule theatre trips. And I have realised that I don’t want to go back to being as busy as I was before; I want to ensure that I still have time to just be me.
So I’ve started to add a new activity into my calendar: Time to breathe.
Where I can see a week is starting to look busy, I find a free evening and schedule in a ‘Time to breathe’ appointment from 8 till 10. I’m a big fan of colour coding my diary so these events have their own colour (one that I find relaxing) which makes it easy to see where they are. And more importantly to KNOW that they are coming. Should a new opportunity arise that week I may move my ‘Time to breathe’ to another evening, but if I can’t do that then I will turn that opportunity down or look to see if it can happen in a quieter week.
If this sounds selfish to you — it should! I strongly believe that making time for yourself is as important as making time for others. It’s a perfect example of the metaphor of putting on your own mask before helping others to put on theirs. Time for yourself is essential for you to have the energy to do the things you want or need to do for others, so in this instance being selfish should be seen as a positive.
If you’ve been appreciating the space in your life and don’t want to lose it — or if you know you need to start to find some — I recommend trying this method:
- Look for a week in your calendar that is busy or you feel might get busy
- Schedule in a ‘Time to breathe’ appointment on an evening that is free
- You can move that appointment to another evening if you have one — but don’t delete it
- Enjoy that time!
