Busy, too much to do, ‘To Do’ Lists, errands, favors, people with requests, kids who need ‘stuff’, phone calls, emails, laundry, lawn to mow, weeds, garbage, clutter, boxes, old projects, new projects, deadlines, articles….whew!
Busy has become a coping strategy so we don’t notice our tiredness, or lack of spark, or our unhappiness. If we just keep moving, getting things “done”, we can feel like a success. If my list gets crossed off today, the kitchen counter gets cleared, and everyone gets fed this week – isn’t that enough?
I invite you into a space of peace and pause.
The moment between breaths when you can look around and notice and feel. The moment when the house is quiet, the stars are out, the crickets are chirping and you can just….exhale.
Below are 13 tips for creating space. Space to breathe. Space to listen – and to hear. Space to feel and fill your soul.
Tip #1 What can you say no to, so you can really say yes to something you love?
We make choices every day. Thousands and thousands of choices. What are some things you can start saying no to, so that you can create a little wiggle of space for things that you REALLY want to be saying yes to?
Tip #2 What do you need?
Check in right now with your heart. Take a deep breath, ask your heart and soul what it wants right now. And I mean now. In this second. Another deep breath. GO.DO.THAT. Seriously, GO! I’ll wait here until you come back.
Tip #3 Build an extra lap into your life:
Take a lap around the block before you walk into the grocery store (a lap with your feet – not in your car J). Take a lap around the outside aisle of Target before you start to shop. Get to work 5 minutes early and walk around the building. Take a break during the day and breeze through the neighborhood. When you go to your kids’ activity, drop them off, park the car, and take a stroll around the building, park, or friends’ neighborhood. After church, take the long way back to your car – around the next block, down two streets and over, and then on your way back. There are so many beautiful places that we speed by in our cars. Put one foot in front of the other and just look around.
Tip #4 What 5 minute space growing practice can you add to your routine?
- Can you have your coffee on your deck or porch?
- Can you leave for work early, drive/walk through a park?
- Can you sit in the garage for 5 minutes when you get home, just taking a few extra spacious breaths before you go in and tackle all that is waiting for you?
- Can you take a bath instead of a shower?
- Can you close your eyes to hear the place you are – instead of seeing?
Tip #5 How are you taking care of your body today?
Did you drink water, eat enough, stretch and flex all of your joints, move, walk, dance? Did you get enough hugs? (8 a day keeps the Doctor away!) Have you been touched – skin to skin contact? Can you give your body a good long stretch before you get out of bed in the morning (or right before you go to sleep)?
Tip #6 Have you opened your heart?
Can you feel the love between you and your loved ones? Can you take a deep breath into your heart and feel it sending love to that special someone? Your Dog? Can you take a moment of gratitude for the sunrise (or sunset)?
Tip #7 What do you HATE to do?
How can you let go of that? Trade with your spouse / neighbor? Hire out/trade or barter? Hire a neighbor kid to do?
Tip #8 What isn’t yours to do?
Are you still doing your teenagers laundry? Are you nagging your spouse to mow the lawn? Are you worrying about Jim, Mike and Sheryl, and they don’t even know they are on your radar (or CARE)?
Tip #9 Is your checkbook balanced so you can stop thinking about whether you will have enough money?
Money is a form of energy, love it, but don’t worship it. Don’t be so devoted to lack that you can’t see what you ‘have’. Can you automate some bills to get paid? Can you set up an automatic monthly transfer to a savings account to save for vacation, Christmas, taxes, or an emergency fund? Start with $5 if you are able.
Tip #10 You only need enough money for today.
Tomorrow’s money is tomorrow’s problem. Do you have enough money for today?
Tip #11 What STUFF that you no longer love can you let go of?
Your Christmas sweater from 1976 could receive some serious love from a teenager shopping for a party sweater at Goodwill. Your grandmother’s chipped china vase would be appreciated at an art center mosaic class. The project supplies to make X from two summers ago can really go. The basket of mismatched socks that have been there since your son was in kindergarten can be donated or tossed
(his now size 12 feet won’t miss them). The plate you got from your mom’s best friend’s mother as a wedding gift and is STILL IN THE BOX, can find a new loving home. Declutter your physical space to declutter your mind.
Tip #12 Make a list.
Write it down. Get a simple notebook, grab an empty journal – or invest in a binder with reams of paper. Not the back of an envelope, not a receipt. Let’s do a brain dump! We are inundated by information all day long. TV, radio, papers, books, the 24-hour news cycle, Facebook, the people in your lives, your dog, the neighbors kids, work, colleagues, and all the extra “fun” things we have signed up (and signed our kids up for). Whew! ALL THOSE DETAILS!
Let go of the extra brainpower it takes to remember. To juggle. To be the master wizard behind the curtain that knows all the things! A page for junk info, a page for tomorrow, a page for kid A, dog B, Project X. Just get it out. Don’t worry about organization, don’t worry about it making sense, don’t worry about getting it “right”. Don’t even worry about “the doing” of it all. Just get it down on paper.
Your brain will thank you.
Tip #13 Tell me about your favorite song.
What memory do you have when you hear it? What is your favorite line? Does it make you feel like Wonder Woman? Lust for Super Man? Make you kick off your shoes and dance in the living room? Sing at the top of your lungs in the car? Do you wait for it to pop up on the radio? (Are you listening to the right station, most of our favorites are now ‘classic’ or ‘oldies’!!!) Do you have it on CD? Grab the nearest pre-teen or teenager, and get them to download it to your phone. Sign up for Spotify or Rhapsody and create your 1st playlist. Go online and order the CD.
And Sing. Or Dance. Or Sway. Or hum. Take an opportunity each day to just feel how good it feels to love what you love.
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