50 Lil' Habits: Me Time
Choose alone time that puts your soul at the center.
Our "go big or go home" culture has left many people feeling overwhelmed, stuck, and gloomy, when all it takes is a lil’ action to turn things around.
Want to try out a new daily habit? I've got a few suggestions.
Here's one:
Create a daily ritual of intentional “Me Time.”
We can all benefit from quality alone time, even the extraverted.
Someone recently boiled down the categorization of introvert vs. extravert in a way that I think makes a lot of sense. They said, each of us needs a certain amount of social time or we get weird and each of us needs a certain amount of alone time or we get weird. And we all have a sweet spot somewhere on that spectrum.
As a self-identified enthusiastic introvert who craves time to myself, I land on the “All the Me Time Possible” side of the spectrum. Whether I’m traveling to another country or just going out to eat, I find being on my own fulfilling. “Me time” is intentional, sacred, and a pull towards self-reflection. I let my thoughts wander through my mind and hop a ride on the ones that capture my imagination. Even still I understand the general perception that being alone equates to something sad or scary like loneliness, and so choosing solitude can be a radical act.
Keyword = Choose. When “alone” isn’t something we choose, solitude can feel overwhelming, and we anxiously fill that time with music we don’t really listen to, a TV show we don’t really watch, and news headlines we barely recall as we thumb through feeds on our device. Under those circumstances we tend to check out.
“Loneliness is happening to me. Solitude is happening for me. That little shift makes the biggest difference.” Jenn Drummond, Mountaineer
Instead, choose alone time that is purely for your pleasure by building your own daily “me time” ritual that puts your soul at the center. Get curious about your soul, the life force that is YOU, and what makes it thrive. Start lil’ and ask yourself, what can I do in a 5-minute timeframe to generate more of what my soul needs?
Being alone produces a moment where you have the most control over your environment. Definitely ditch your devices and create some guardrails that keep you from shifting to busyness. If your life is crowded, reshape the time in your day when you are already alone, like in the shower or in bed before you get up.
Give purpose to your daily solitude. You get to make it whatever you want it to be.
“When from our better selves we have too long been parted by the hurrying world, and droop. Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired, how gracious, how benign is solitude.” - William Wordsworth
If this LIL’ HABIT resonates with you, create a ripple of action by sharing it with a friend.