Finding the Time

So much to do, so little time.  Sound familiar?  Most days that feels like the story of my life.  With a house to clean, a phone to answer, Facebook, a child to care for, a spouse to love, food to cook/buy, bills to pay, a yoga and spiritual practice to nurture (of course in doing so it nurtures & nourishes me as well), writing, working, exercising, having fun, the list could potentially go on forever.  How do we find the time to do it all?

I ask myself this question often and it led me to here.  I think we find the time my balancing our priorities & responsibilities & by allowing ourselves time to do those things we most love & enjoy.  When our life is out of balance we feel it physically, mentally, emotionally & spiritually.

We have daily responsibilities that must be met, the need to work, to care for ourselves, our children (if we have them) & partners (if we have them), the need to maintain our living environment to some standard & to care for our pets.  Simply put, we must care for life, our & others.  We must work (if we are able) to afford our needs & our pleasures.  Our standards vary greatly, our needs are simple & our wants are many.  If your life is out of balance & we all get out of balance revisit how you are living & what you are thinking.  If you feel it in your gut (stomach aches) or in your head (chronic headaches) or in some other area of your body you are likely receiving a message from your physical body that a change needs to be made in some or many areas of your life.

Where to start.  List your responsibilities & then prioritizes them.  I will give you what I have come to know as true for me.  My priorities go like this: God, me, others (husband, son, family, friends and yes in that order), work (I love what I do that helps a lot!) & then fun.

God the creator & owner of it all, the One responsible for all that I have, He will make sure all of my needs are met.   And I believe if I work hard, pray & if my wants are in alignment with His desire for my life, He will give me the desires of my heart too.  I believe it all begins & end with Him.

Next in line, me.  Not me in a selfish way, but if I am not taking care of myself, exercising, eating well, enjoying life, resting/relaxing, nurturing myself, my energy will deplete & I will have nothing to give my loved ones & the world out there.

Following me, my husband, we have a precious relationship & it takes work to keep it a healthy & a happy one.  In addition we are teaching our son how to treat others & be treated through how we treat each other & when he’s grown & gone we are alone again.  We both have a need to stay deeply connected to one another.

My son, what a precious gift.  He deserves the best of me & he requires a lot at this young age.  And by a lot, I mean a lot, it takes a great deal of my time daily meeting his needs.  Most times I love it though so it’s not too hard to give that time up for him.  And it’s temporary, we have very little time with our little ones, they grow so fast!

Beyond that are family & friends that I love & want to share my life with & that ties directly into having fun.  To have fun you need money, not neccessarily alot of money but some helps.  I put people before work, I am fortunate though because I love what I do & I am in a position to serve & help others with the gifts that God has given me.  So my priorities & I bet yours too, are all directly interconnected, but when life gets crazy or I feel stressed & out of sorts I go back over it & make sure I am being true to myself.

Sometimes we can figure it out on our own & sometimes we need help.  Don’t be ashamed to get the help of a friend, family member, professional (counselor, therapist, life coach, ect.), doctor, massage therapist, chiropractor, homeopath or acupuncturist (especailly if you are feeling in physically).   There is someone to help if you need it, just keep looking until you find the right person/people.  Sometimes it takes a team & that is okay.  You are worth it!