Finding time for ourselves is very important

Good morning. It’s Saturday morning. Early Saturday morning and I am already at the hair salon having my hair done so that I am available to take my children to their many events today. My husband can do the work he needs to do. And I can fit in some community work later today as well before working backstage tonight for South Pacific.

One of my friends called me this morning at 6.45 to ask if I was up and if I wanted to go with her to boot camp. She thought she was waking me up when I was dressed and on my way out of the door to get to the hair salon. When I told her that she laughed and said, “People that have no children have no idea what we have to do as parents to fit everything in. Why would I be up at 6.30 in the morning to exercise. People that have no children have so much more flexibility than we do so they would never understand our lives.”

I thought about what she said after we hung up and realised just how true that statement is. As parents , involved parents that is, our lives are built around our children’s lives. Particularly if we want our children to explore their interests whatever they may be. We are always arranging and rearranging our schedules to fit around our children’s schedules so they can be exposed to as much as they can be while at the same time trying to carve out some time for ourselves.

That’s why my day begins so early because I know how important it is for me to have some "me" time. Some alone time when I can listen to my own thoughts and get my mind clear about what it is I want to do and need to do to fulfil myself. That’s why I write this blog,  which I now think of as my morning coffee – thanks to my friend Shari-Lynn Pringle. She calls my blog her morning coffee. And when she told me that something went off in my head.

This blog is truly my morning coffee because it is what gets me up so early in the morning. What allows me to set my intention for the day. To clear the muddle that is going on in my head. To inhale deeply and to exhale slowly. To know what kind of day I am going to have based on my writing.

So for those parents and for non parents as well that are running helter skelter. From place to place. Try to find some time in the day to reconnect with who you are so that you can be a better and more compassionate person to yourself enabling you to go out into the world as a better and more compassionate person. If we don’t take care of ourselves first, we can’t take care of anyone else.

And being busy for the sake of being busy without attending to our own needs usually means we are running from ourselves. Running from dealing with whatever it is that needs to be dealt with and using our children or families or work or whatever other vice we may have as an excuse. Ultimately resulting in us not being present with ourselves or any of them either.

So find something that resonates with you as I have done with my morning coffee blog so that you can fill fulfilled and purposeful outside of running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

Happy Saturday everyone. Here’s to the start of a busy day grounded by my morning coffee blog. And for finding my passion and awarding myself some "me" time, I am truly grateful. Namaste.