Me Time!

Life is busy around here, with kids and household chores and career. ME TIME is more important now, more than ever. It is an important part of life as there are so many people are not able to take out time for them. It is not selfish to love yourself, but it’s selfness to take care of yourself and to make your happiness a priority. In fact, it is imperative. There’s nothing wrong with taking a little “ME TIME’- a time which you devote totally to yourself, and no one else. While you are busy taking care of everyone, make sure you include yourself. The only person whose opinion you need to worry about is your own! Do not think what others think of you – it should be none of your concern. What others think of you does not change who you are! YOU are YOU, beautiful one, unique! One of a kind – YOU!

Greet all the misty mornings with gratitude. There is always something to be thankful for! God has given so many things around us and to us. There’s a magical place inside you to venture – so nothing is impossible. Give yourself permission to have a little ‘Me’ time so that you can be the best wife, mom, friend and woman you can possibly be. It is possible that one feels a tinge of guilt about it. But do not feel guilty about it because with lots of routine work which you have carved through the years, there is a small little space within you creates wonder – and it needs to be nurtured by this “Me – time”. Sometimes we give so much that we end up losing ourselves. Alone time is when we can distance ourselves from the voices of the world – so we can hear our own voice. In one word – ‘SOUL SEARCH’. It heals the depths of our souls and identifies our true needs and desires. It is recharging our batteries to get back to this world again. To be perfect in whatever we do. Recover, think, and just BE ME! It’s a part of what makes a woman, a happy and healthy person. It’s not always easy to do so, but taking the journey alone is often needed to rejuvenate our own sense, body and soul.

No wonder that working moms feel the need to compensate for their lack of “mom’s performance”, rushing to get to their families as soon as possible after working hours to ease the tinge of guilt of being gone for so long. There is the pressure of the kid’s extracurricular activities, homework, dinner and, the work on E-mails that one cannot ignore. For everyone in family, it’s a go, go and go. There is no down time or no more empty space in the calendar. With that much on our plate no wonder there is no more “me time” left. For many, self care may not even feel like an option. But it is your only option if you want to take care of your family and work for as long as possible. It is like you all have heard in aircraft, flight attendants tell us to ”secure our oxygen mask before assisting others,” therefore we have to make time for ourselves to be energetic and productive to be a great mom, spouse, employee and a member of the society. It’s thinking about our own needs and taking care of them. Perhaps, one day we would tell our daughters to do the same thing, so that she enjoys life and handles it perfectly.

Curl up with a great book, a cup of tea or coffee and immerse yourself in an experience that appeals to all of your senses. Doesn’t that sound heavenly? We all need exercise, good nutrition, and positive ways of managing daily stress. It’s true there are only so many hours in the day, so we have to carefully schedule “ME TIME”. If you need help – ask for it. Ask your spouse, family, neighbour, friend or anyone who cares for you. There will be so many times you, like you have failed but in the eyes of your child you are a “Super mom” – even if you have an assistant hero for help. example if you need time to find shop for, cook up healthy recipes, schedule that time for yourself and make it someone else’s job to help you with housework or to watch the kids.

Everyone has the power to change. First we need to decide what we want and need to believe that it is worth. Try out- beautiful ladies – start giving yourself “random acts of selfness”!

Here are some easy ways to squeeze more”ME TIME” into our day, no matter how busy bee you are:

Take a Breathe: This sounds easy! Isn’t it? But it’s crazy that the number of times we don’t even get time to catch our breath, literally! Whether work has got you crazy or things are not working out as they should, just stop…close your eyes (of course when it’s safe to do so not while you are driving!)And try to clear your mind. Then, focus on taking 10 deep breaths. Make sure the breath fills your belly as you inhale-Many of us don’t take a full breath, but rather breathe upwards breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Try to make your out breath twice as long as your inhale. Do this 10 times with your closed eyes. You shall be able to feel your nervous system calming and the Panic going away. The best thing about it is one can do it anywhere any place, anytime!

Call a family member or Friend A good friend is a lifelong treasure. A true friend is like a four-leaf clover – hard to find and lucky to have. Never lose a true friend .Often, try to call a relative whom you can share your troubles or someone who lets you have true freedom to be yourself. Whatever you happen to be feeling at the moment is fine! That’s what real love amounts to – letting a person be what he or she really is. So be trust worthy to get trust from others. It doesn’t have to be long but 10-15 minutes of conversation with someone we love can help us to relax and feel more fulfilled with our day.

Go Outside Going outside for a walk in nature allows our body to get vitamin D and to eliminate toxins from our body, the greenery, and the fresh air refresh our mood and clear off negative thoughts from our minds. If you work in an office and really need to get outside, simply walk around the building or the block again for 10-15 minutes. It helps to realize that sometimes some problems are not that big after all; it’s how we deal with them. Be calm and the sound brain works better.

Inspire your inner Chef ‘Chef’ doesn’t mean that you are the best cook, it simply means ‘boss’. I have been a cook all my life, but I am still learning experimenting new techniques and improving beyond my own knowledge because there is always something new to learn and new horizons to discover. Cooking is only a theme – which an intelligent cook can play each time with a variation. Laughter is brightest where food is best. A homemade meal is very satisfactory and for kids as well as for your spouse a simple dish made with your hands would bring happiness. Cooking is like love. And the greatest dishes are very simple choose one nice recipe and try it out. Cooking is creativity and with time it improves. Cooking at home shows affection and caring, an expression of love being together!

It’s like making love, you do it well, or you do not do it at all! The aroma of mom’s cooking wafting from the kitchen into our bedrooms still twinkles our memories. Be it home made pakodas on a rainy day , simply a smell of brewing adrak ellaichiwali chai or mom’s simple daal chawal resides still in our memory ,the food that we grew up on. So, why not to create same feelings for our kids there’s nothing that beats maa ke haath ka khanna, food to cheer them up. Enjoy cooking so that you will start to look forward to it as me-time.

Write Not everyone is a writer. But the act of writing and expressing our emotions and thoughts actually helps to calm us down. You can write about anything or any paragraph to start with. One can write on the smart phones! They are so user friendly that with our tips we can share our views to the world .If you have nothing to write then start up a daily dairy of your routine work, things that worried you, why you are stressed or why the day was wonderful. You will be amazed how light you feel after having written the words down on paper. It’s great to reflect and focus on the good things in life.

Treat Yourself As the old saying goes – If you don’t love yourself who else will? It’s the lighter pleasure that we get us through the everyday grind. Why to wait for next vacation or a day off? Remind yourself that you deserve a happy life and enjoy yourself on a regular basis. Treat yourself with a spa or a nice massage, a relaxing pedicure eye catching nail paint or manicure to pamper your arms and foot. A trendy hair colour or a haircut can boost your personality and sometimes a change works wonder. Take pleasure of nurturing yourself.

Take a relaxing shower gel bath There’s probably nothing more relaxing than getting home after a long day of work and pampering your body with a long warm bath. Relax by taking a shower gel bath with some stress relieving oils that keeps you fresh and clean .Wrap yourself in the bubbly lather, savour the beautiful fragrance let your skin smile.

Gift Yourself Give yourself the gift of five minutes of doing nothing. Sometimes this is enough to get a bit of breathing room and planning your next move. Stimulate yourself to learn or hear something about a new topic.

Do a good work everyday Try to do something nice for some needy or poor. How does this works? When we carry out random acts of kindness, we feel a warm glow inside. And the universe does give back to you each act of kindness that you do! So, everyone benefits!

Cultivate hobbies Make yourself an uplifting playlist containing your favourite songs and listen to them while doing your work. You can opt gardening which gives delight and helps in passing the leisure time. We can derive great pleasure from gardening, growing flowers and some vegetables of the season. We can do painting, sketching and mandala art which is an art therapy and healing that can be a great source of reflection on one’s soul.

Get and go out for Shopping Get rid of your old clothes or apparels and go for shopping replace clothes that doesn’t fit or flatter you. Be trendy and trend setter. Sometimes window shopping is fun and makes us happier.

Read Try out reading new books flips over magazines and blogs for free inspiration within minutes as may be you are doing it by reading my blog. Ahh! This is truly inspiring isn’t it!

Love animals and birds-Go out to an animal shelter or a pet store or do bird watching, or photography. There’s something relaxing about watching them playing and sleep together in a happy snugly heap.

Electronic Detox Sometimes “ME TIME” means turning the rest of the world off. This means switch off all the electronic items .Treat yourself to an electronic detox. Getting our eyes and mind away from these items which keeps on bombarding one with so many negative energies. If you are doing one of the other tips on the list, you are already away from your electronics-but if you need a detox in mid of the day just put off to everything and enjoy the silence for a while.

Workout or yoga At least workout half an hour a day it keeps you fit and it’s necessary for our body fitness and good health. Exercise adds up spice to our routine life. Earlier it might not seem satisfying and painful but later trust me you will start enjoying after some time.

These are few tips I have shared so that you can squeeze out “ME TIME” even if you are busy. Sometimes it’s all about our perspective. You might already do a lot of these things but not think of them as “ME TIME “whatever you do just enjoy and squeeze that “ME TIME” in for a world of benefits!

So all fashionable divas may I ask your valuable comments for my blog of course, you can give it in your “ME TIME” .keep smiling and enjoying…and keep spending some more and more “ME TIME”.