Mindful Self-Care Rituals for Busy People

Mindful Self-Care Rituals for Busy People
Lets be realistic. Have you ever added up the time that it would take for you to do everything you expect of yourself? Most people who work full time (in employment or as a parent)  do not have the physical time to do everything that the self-help industry suggests that they do. Don’t feel bad about that. Everyone has 24 hours in a day, 16 if you are sleeping as much as you should. Remove a 8 hour working day and a hour commute, you have 7 hours. Even if we underestimate the time for preparing food, eating, personal hygiene and housework, etc down to 3 hours a day. That leaves you 4 hours a day, during which you are probably shattered from the other 12 hours of your daily life. So lets stop beating ourselves up and be realistic for a moment. Add up the time it takes to do the bare essentials of life. Then figure out how much time you have a day left over. Weekends will look different.
What needs to fill that ‘left over time?’

Exercise? Social connection? Connection with the Divine? Creative outlets? Relaxations, like reading or doing a jigsaw, or maybe a movie? Meditation? Do you want to join a club or a class? Are you studying something? Mindfulness?  Do you have a pet that requires time? Do you have a wee side hustle to earn extra income? What do you need to do to embrace joy and create some quality of life?

Once you have this all written down. What can you make some choices based on a realistic view of time.
Now here are some wee tricks you can try out.

1 Affirmations are great. They help you to build a healthy internal dialogue and break destructive habits. Better yet, you can print them out on laminated cards and stick them to the shower wall. So you can do them while you shower. Great impact on life and zero time lost!

2 Mantra singing or “Auming”. If you can learn a few mantras or songs that lift up your heart and give you a feel good vibe, this is going to tick some of the “soul food” box. If you drive to work alone, you can do this in the car. If the car next to you looks, just wind the window down and let them join in, its good for them.  Here is my spotify mantra play list, for you to choose your favourites from.

3 Meditation and Social connection- If you come to meditation night on a Tuesday, then these two are achieved together. We have a great meditation first, then a chance to chat after. It’s a lovely group and always good for a laugh or a deeper conversation.

4 Be conscious when you Exercise. If you are exercising your body, your mind is free to release past issues- Perhaps some soul coaching is needed first, but once you have uncovered the restricting issues, you can work them out of your physical body while you exercise. Is there anything better than walking or running while leaving all of the rubbish in your mind on the road behind you? Or perhaps you need to take out the physical frustration out of your body with some boxing or ecstatic dance.

5 If you are feeling physically restricted- Come for some healing. Let’s release the restrictions and get you back into the juiciness of living. We talk and figure out together what that looks like and how you can embrace it.