By GG Renee Hill
Have you ever looked around at all you have to be thankful for and felt nothing but lack and worry? You’re not alone.
You might think of yourself as a happy person and yet sometimes your efforts feel unappreciated and peace eludes you. We all go through it. Perhaps we are spending so much time giving to others that we neglect to give time to ourselves. This can build up to feeling cranky, stressed, overwhelmed, and unsatisfied, just waiting for life to disappoint us. When that happens, it’s the spirit telling us that it needs attention.
It's important to pamper your spirit and make time for what brings you joy.
No matter how happy we perceive ourselves to be, we can get so busy doing and accomplishing, pursuing the so-called good life that we forget to be still and experience the moment. The good life is here and now, right before our eyes, and sometimes we get so distracted by all the doing that we don’t notice it. Let’s not forget that the joy is in the ride. No matter what we are doing, we must bring our own joy, our own peace with us every day. Here are a few ways to do just that.
This is the part where I pass you the mic. What do you do to pamper your spirit and keep peace of mind as your main priority?
Have you ever looked around at all you have to be thankful for and felt nothing but lack and worry? You’re not alone.
You might think of yourself as a happy person and yet sometimes your efforts feel unappreciated and peace eludes you. We all go through it. Perhaps we are spending so much time giving to others that we neglect to give time to ourselves. This can build up to feeling cranky, stressed, overwhelmed, and unsatisfied, just waiting for life to disappoint us. When that happens, it’s the spirit telling us that it needs attention.
It's important to pamper your spirit and make time for what brings you joy.
No matter how happy we perceive ourselves to be, we can get so busy doing and accomplishing, pursuing the so-called good life that we forget to be still and experience the moment. The good life is here and now, right before our eyes, and sometimes we get so distracted by all the doing that we don’t notice it. Let’s not forget that the joy is in the ride. No matter what we are doing, we must bring our own joy, our own peace with us every day. Here are a few ways to do just that.
Practice Visualization
If you’ve never done this before, it will feel weird at first. But if you really think about it, we are picturing things all day anyway and this is just a way of being deliberate about it. Vividly picture, in your head, everything working itself out and having a positive outcome. For example, I like to visualize a bubble of protection encircling my babies when I kiss and hug them goodbye every day. When it comes to manifesting the goals you have for your life, you can use a poster board, a scrapbook or an online tool like Pinterest, to gather images that inspire you and give you hope.
Eliminate the Unnecessary
We accumulate physical and emotional clutter that we need to examine and purge every now and then. Otherwise, it builds up and gets in the way of what really matters. We tell ourselves that we have to do this and we have to do that, but do we really? Is it meaningful, does it add value? If not, revisit why you’re carrying it around. I recently decided to stop feeling guilty about isolating myself so I can finish a project I’ve been working on. Guilt is a purposeless emotion and all it does is make us feel victimized and uninspired.
Indulge Your Creativity
Creativity and spirituality go hand and hand. When you feel genuinely inspired in an activity, you feel the alignment, the authentic use of your spiritual gifts and it’s essentially a form of worship. If you are thinking that you are not creative, hush. You have preferences and opinions, a way of seeing the world that distinguishes you. The more you embrace those distinctions and cultivate them, the more you will find ways to express yourself and connect them with a larger purpose. When I stopped telling myself that I was not creative and allowed myself to write freely, I found a peace within myself that sustains me through life’s ups and downs.
Choose Your Battles
Don’t allow yourself to be sucked into silly arguments, debates or negative discussions. Sometimes our egos won't allow us to let things go. We don't want anyone to think that they got over on us. But that's exactly what we're doing when we let people push our buttons. When you set out each day with peace as your priority, minor vexations won’t bother you so much. I’m still working on this, but when I feel myself getting irritated and wanting to argue, I think of the gravity of the situation and if it’s really worth the energy. Using visualization again, I step outside of myself and try to see the bigger picture. If it’s simply a battle of ego, I don’t feel the need to compete. Self-preservation always wins.
Quality Time
Make time in your schedule for quality time with your loves. There’s nothing like a girls’ night out (or in) to make you feel human again. Date nights. Movie nights. Sunday dinners. Road trips. Don’t let those things fall by the wayside. As you reminisce, revive and reassure, you will be reminded of why you work so hard and you will be thankful for the opportunity to escape and just be. As someone who doesn’t like to talk on the phone, I make an effort to schedule in-person time with my friends and loved ones so I always have something rejuvenating to look forward to.
Unplug
If you don’t have boundaries, social media can easily dominate your time. If it’s not social media, it’s email. If it’s not email, it’s a disruptive phone call. Protect your energy by setting aside time for these things. In most cases, you don’t need to respond to everything immediately. We just feel like we do because we have these devices and these alerts that are always triggering us. Turn them off. Shut everything down. Breathe. I wish I could give you some specific advice on how I do this, but I’m still working on it. The key word is boundaries. Experiment until you figure out what works best for you.
This is the part where I pass you the mic. What do you do to pamper your spirit and keep peace of mind as your main priority?