Our society has slowly evolved into a high-pace and high-pressure environment. Consider how earlier generations had no way of connecting to their family who left the door except for the occasional “house phone”. Nowadays everyone has a cellphone instead of a house phone, or should I say a laptop with the size of a cellphone?
In our environment it’s pleasant to always stay connected, but at the same time we are also forced to remain connected almost 24/7 If someone sents us a message and we don’t reply within a certain time the other might worry that something is wrong. Imagine going for a long walk of 3 hours leaving your smartphone home? Does that seem possible for you or does it rather provoke anxiety? Obviously actually leaving your cellphone at home is not necessary. Because the cellphone also functions as our method of calling for help when needed. Many years ago it was normal if someone knocked on the door to use the phone shortly, now it’s rather strange. The point we are making here is not to banish your phone, rather get used to not live for the actions on your phone.
The best cure for the body is a quiet mind. – Napoleon Bonaparte
When we set certain goals for ourselves we would love to crush these goals, even if it requires a lot of sacrifices. While it’s important to achieve these goals you should also look at what you are giving up and if you really have to give that up. A great example for this is if you want to become healthy you know you have to add some (extra) movement in your life. This could be a work out or a bike ride in the evening. This could mean that you spend less time with your friends. Or you could decide to sacrifice something else. For example skip one of the hours you normally sit in front of the television or your computer. Instead of watching something stupid you can go for the bike ride and afterwards still have time for family or friends.
While giving things up might be easy, don’t give up things that are important for you, or that should be important. For example if you started doing meditation a year ago and notice now that you have to go to the gym why would you sacrifice your meditation time? There are plenty other, less important, activities that you can give up. In the same light you can look at “quiet time”/ Some people only have a small amount of time that they do nothing, this is their quiet time. From the moment they add an extra goal in their life this time will be sacrificed. But have you ever thought about how important quiet time is for your body and mind? While it may be tempting to give up on your quiet time consider all the possibilities before you remove your quiet time.