Learning to take time for myself
For the longest time (and perhaps the early readers of my blog may remember this) I’ve had a really hard time saying “no” to things. One more book chapter. One more social media event. One more party. One more thing. Always. There would be times when I would attend two tweetups and another social media event on the same night. Within 3 hours. That is, I would spend less than 45 minutes at each single event.
In the past few months, I’ve learned to just take time for myself. I’ve said “sorry, but I can’t” or “thanks, but I’m taking a night for myself” or “I appreciate the invite, I can’t make it, I need time for myself” more often.
And quite frankly, I feel less and less guilty now. I still attend events (heck, I was exhausted and I participated on a panel at Fresh Media in the past couple of weeks) but I am now more selective with what I do. I feel a strong responsibility to attend theatre shows to support the local artistic community, but if I can’t make it, well, I can’t make it. Sorry, and so be it.
Finally, it seems as though I’ve begun to learn to take time for myself. And it feels great.
As Stephen Covey says, you have to “sharpen the saw” and take time out. Of course your version of slowing down is still a million miles an hour for most of us, but good for you for putting yourself first.