Going about your daily business.
Going about your daily busy-ness.  

Do you notice the difference in those similar statements?

Maybe your day is filled with a lot of activity and you are so consumed with your list of tasks that you fail to recognise when you are starting to run on empty. You feel that you can’t stop for a break, and that giving yourself 5 minutes fills you with guilt. Even though you need a pause in the day, you don’t feel deserving of one. So you keep up with the busy-ness, never feeling particularly energised or rested, and then the inevitable wall hits.

It’s one think being able to recognise when you need a minute to pause, but it’s quite another acting on it. We have become quite good at recognising the signs, talking about well-being and calling out the need to be kind to others, but we’re less good at activating it for ourselves. Recognition needs to be acted upon. Sometimes car bong out that time for yourself takes determination and a bit of bravery, it will never ‘just happen’. 

Taking a moment means enacting a behavior change that is full of intention. Of course, all actions have consequences - not everyone will understand or appreciate our choice to look after ourselves. We might think we’ll fall behind, and that the break can happen later, but that ‘later’ never comes. We make lots of excuses to put ourselves to the bottom of the pile, and becoming a martyr holds more appeal than being someone who holds onto their convictions and need for personal well-being tightly.

When we finally break through that fear of missing out, being judged or falling behind, we may find that in our moments of stillness, quiet and self-care, something else happens.  The things we have buried under our busyness - our creativity, our deep thinking, the things that really matter to us, start to come to the fore.

When we are up close to all the tasks we need to complete and stuck on the activity cycle, we can lose perspective on what is important.

Self care helps us see the changes we need to make more clearly, and helps us build up the energy to move forward again, and again.