Take Time
Sometimes we need to just take a moment. We all know how the world is now, it’s a constant barrage of screens, noise, and information, people talking loudly into their phone speakers as they are standing in line at the supermarket. Making the time, and taking the time to spend some quiet hours doing what makes you feel refreshed and complete, is important. Choosing when and where you do that is a personal preference, kitchen table, chair on your deck, on a walk in the woods, or the little coffee shop around the corner. Maybe we take the corner table or a spot outside under the awning, and talk about our hobbies with a friend, or sit by ourselves, and mull over the way our life is going. Maybe it’s a cup of coffee, and a bench in the park, or a quiet corner of a bookstore, it doesn’t matter where you take your time, just take it.
Life is shorter than we realize, no matter what our age, and taking the time to sort through the important parts is, well, important. It lets us take stock of where we are, make plans for the future, gather our thoughts, and get ready to move on in whatever direction we choose. And, move on in a way that is good for us, and healthy, where we have a firm grasp on the future and what we want out of it.
Work is another place where we often let others infringe upon our time. Take your lunch, get out of the office, and go somewhere. Don’t eat at your desk, don’t let others take up your small breaks from your workday by overloading you. Take the time. The same way with vacation time. Don’t miss that downtime, we often say, “Oh, I’ll take off next year”. Don’t do it. Do not fall into the trap of feeling as though you are indispensable. While that may be the case, no one, not even work, has the right to take your personal time from you. So take those paid vacation days, all of them, use them up; they are a part of your compensation.
It’s also not a crime to take a sick day, even a mental health day, if you have paid sick leave; that’s what it’s for. Some days we just aren’t feeling it, we might get up when the alarm goes off and have morning coffee, and find we just aren’t feeling the day, we can tell it’s not going to go well. Take that mental health day, stay home, or just go do something for yourself.
And, have coffee and a croissant at the shop around the corner, you might find it gives you an entirely new outlook on life, a new mission, a new direction to travel.