A moment of gratitude,
Time out to breathe.
I didn't make a podcast for a little while over the summer because I felt that I needed some time out and I feel that this is important.
Taking time out,
Be that 10 minutes or even a whole year,
Giving ourselves that time can be invaluable.
For today's moment of gratitude,
Either think about a time when you were able to give yourself some time and space or use this as an opportunity to plan that time for yourself.
Maybe that time could be a 10 minute breathing practice or maybe it's a day off where instead of catching up on the housework or errands,
You just don't schedule anything and spend that time on things that take care of your mental health and wellbeing.
Giving ourselves that breathing space,
That time to stop and think isn't selfish or indulgent,
It's necessary.
We live in a world that moves at 100 miles an hour where we pile expectations on ourselves to do more,
Be more and have more.
We want to keep up with the Joneses,
The Facebookers or the Instagrammers.
We want to work more,
To buy more and to fill our time up with more and more and more.
By taking time out to breathe,
We allow ourselves to think about what really matters to us,
What is important in our lives and what we really don't miss when it's not there.
Do you really miss scrolling through the ever increasing amount of social media channels?
Do you really miss seeing what someone you once knew did?
Do you really miss racing from one thing to another?
Or do you enjoy stopping to eat mindfully and taste your food properly?
Stopping to notice what peaceful sounds and feels like?
Do you enjoy taking time to have a long bath,
A relaxing yoga session or a meditation?
We may enjoy being busy but balancing that with time to be with ourselves,
To focus on the moment and to have gratitude for that time is important.
It allows us to really notice and to feel things.
It is like stopping to look at the paintings in a gallery rather than rushing past them to get to the gift shop.
Today have gratitude for pockets of time where you can take the opportunity to stop and breathe,
Whether it is 10 minutes or whether it's putting something on pause for a while and coming back to it later when you have time to appreciate it in a more meaningful way.
