Who Are You? And What Have You Done With Myself?

Life is full of exhausting demands and much of the time it's so difficult to balance. No need for me to go into detail, because if you're reading this, you're likely already very familiar, and probably up to your eyeballs in the reality of that statement. You ever played one of those restaurant games on your computer or your tablet...you know, the ones where the tutorial shows you how to "run all the machines" and "fill the orders" of the "customers"? when you start out it's like "Hey this isn't so bad" and "boom!" Suddenly you have 15 customers ordering 20 different items and they're all pissed off because you're not moving fast enough. And you find yourself getting all panicky, and your heart starts racing and you hold your breath and your fingers are flying and eventually it's "game over"..."you suck"..."you weren't good enough"..."here, you want to try again?" Ummm. No.

I suppose some people are really good at those kind of games. But I'm not. I don't even find it fun or entertaining. I tried twice and both times I just shut down.

Well, life in all of it's hustle and hurry and deadlines and frustration, sometimes gets so out of control and overwhelming, that I have to remind myself to "push pause". Stop. Quit. Be still. Time out. Done. I don't care who you are or what you need...leave me the hell alone! Because, I learned the hard way there are only so many hours in a day, I only have 2 hands, my shoulders have a limited weight capacity, my brain only runs on so many circuits before it's fried, and I don't have the energy of a freaking 2 year old. "Pause", I will...and I don't need your permission. Thank you very much.

So what does that "pause" look like? Whatever I want it to look like. But you can guarantee it's all on my terms. And it's scheduled consistently. Because if it's not scheduled, it ain't happening. And if I need an "emergency time out"...because "life happens",  I take it. And these are my rules:

• 1 hour minimum
• If I want to be by myself I can
• If I want to invite you I will
• If I don't invite you, don't even think about inviting yourself
• I can be anywhere I want
• For as long as I need

And what do I do? Whatever I feel like. One of these (or more if I feel like it) for example:

• Go for a drive
• Go for a walk
• Go to a movie
• Take a LOOOOONG hot shower
• Write in my journal
• Play a game on my tablet
• Go on a photo shoot (I'm not a photographer. I just like seeing things through the lens of a camera sometimes)
• Crochet
• Work on an art project
• Write a poem
• Read or listen to a book
• Clean and organize my room
• Put together a puzzle
• Eat chocolate
• Meditate
• Go window shopping
• Listen to uplifting music
• Sleep
• Play with play dough or kinetic sand
• Go people watching
• Nothing

I'm never out of ideas. Anything I can do to relax and regroup. There's a lot of being accountable to other people in life; deadlines to be met, relationships to be formed, appointments to be kept. But, I'm not willing to lose or sacrifice myself in the process. There are priorities...and I AM an important one. So I'm committed to treating myself like it!

I'm all in! Are you with me?