Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Moments of stillness in a busy world




I love living in a large metropolitan city where there are always a lot of things happening. Fall is also the season when my husband and I are usually the busiest. It's fun to be busy with work, projects and people you care about. Humans are built to live active lives, but we also need time for rest. Finding that balance in life between an active lifestyle and time for rest and relaxation is what most people struggle with in our modern culture.


 
 
It's easy to get so caught up in life that we find ourselves always on the go, going straight from one activity to the other all day long and then crashing on the couch at the end of the day. I think once a woman hits 30 at the latest her life has gotten really busy. How do you balance kids, marriage, work, home and your own health in so few hours? We can't escape the need to prioritize some things higher than others. If we live for an average of 85 years we will have time for a lot of things in life, we don't necessarily have to do them all at the same time. There's a time for everything in life.
 
 
 

Everyone is different so each person has to find her own routine to stay balanced in life, that's why things can get tricky if we simply try to do what others do in life. What works for one family might not work at all for another family to stay balanced in life. I think the more we can learn to listen inwards and resist the urge to constantly compare our lives with other people, the better we will get at finding our own personal balance.



I personally try to plan time for relaxation and stillness into my everyday life. If I don't take the time to be in nature or at least outdoors every week I will get miserable. Taking a morning walk in my neighborhood on a sunny fall morning can do wonders to my well-being.


I love walking over to the pond nearby and stand there for 5-10 minutes watching the wildlife and enjoying the stillness, then I walk back home feeling refreshed from my time spent in nature.


On a cold, rainy or windy day it can be enough for me to take a 20 minute coffee break from whatever I'm doing and just enjoy the stillness indoors for a little while. If you have kids at home what you need might be something entirely different, maybe what you need is to get out of the house, meet up with a good friend and enjoy an hour with another grownup for a change.


I also try to create peaceful places within my home where I can enjoy moments of stillness during my week. Our family room is one of my favorite places within the home where I love to enjoy a homemade latte and 1-2 chapters in a book I love. I think weaving in moments of stillness and tranquility into our lifestyles is vitally important if we want to live healthy balanced lives.

No comments:

Post a Comment