Friday, January 31, 2014

Scheduling Health Into Your Life


We all have different schedules.  Some of us stay at home all day.  Others of us go in to the office.  Some of us fleet from one job to another throughout the day while others of us have to go to school.

The thing is, there is no one ideal schedule.  Every person's schedule is unique, and there are benefits and drawbacks to every schedule, even the seemingly perfect schedule.  As the saying goes, though, you always want what you can't have.

Oh how true that is.

Those of us working a 9-5 office job, for example, may envy those of us who have more flexibility in their schedules and can, say, fit in a yoga practice whenever.  Those of us who have an erratic schedule may, in turn, envy those with more stability since those are the people who can outline a weekly plan for themselves and know that they'll be able to keep to it.

Envy, among others, is a useless emotion.  There's no point in desiring something that someone else has because it does nothing but make you feel worse.  Whether that covetable "thing" is tangible or intangible doesn't really matter.  Yearning for it, desiring it, envying it (or the person) will not magically change your own situation.

Instead, let those desires/jealousies/what-have-you incentivize you to modify your own schedule so you can incorporate those things you want to be a part of your life!  Make your schedule work for you!

Am I getting too abstract?

Sorry.

Let me be more specific.

You work a 9-5 office job.  You're jealous of your friend who freelances from home because she can wake up as late as she'd like, ease her way into her morning, maybe practice yoga, and scramble up eggs for breakfast.

You want to do those things but you realistically do them, at least in the same way as your friend, so what can you do?

Well, depending on which of those, or other, things are most important to you, decide to schedule those in!  Take yoga, for example.  If it's important enough to you, you will make it work for your lifestyle by scheduling it in regularly.  This might mean waking up extra early to get in some sun-salutations before work or it might mean going after work when you might be either hungry or tired.  As I said though, if it's important, you make it work.

Say you also need your morning smoothie and it's so unfair that your friend has all the time in the world to make hers but you're always zooming out the door.  Again, that may be true that your friend's schedule is different but you can make your own schedule work to accommodate this desire.  This might mean portioning out smoothie ingredients the night before so that in the morning they're ready immediately for blending, or it might mean letting yourself sleep in a bit and treating yourself one, two, three days a week to a smoothie shop near your work.

You can make it work.

And how, you might ask?

Prioritize!

Make a list--yes, a legitimate, handwritten list--of the most important things for you to include in your very own unique lifestyle.  Start by choosing five and make them as specific as possible.  Then, once you've done that, figure out how you're going to do them.  It might mean buying scrambled eggs from a nearby cafe a few mornings of the week or it might mean skipping a yoga class some night in order to get to bed earlier for a longer night's sleep.

Whatever they are, commit to doing them.

Do you currently envy someone or something?  Maybe it's abstract or maybe it's a tangible thing, but whatever it is, it's holding you back!  Adjust your schedule to incorporate this thing[s] you feel you're lacking so that you're no longer viewing yourself as the victim but instead as the champion who chose to make a unique situation work for the present moment.


By scheduling in top-prioritized activities, hobbies or anything else, you'll become confident and empowered in knowing that you're living YOUR life to its fullest, and what that means, only you can define.

With love, light and happiness,



No comments:

Post a Comment