Give Yourself the Gift of Time

'Tis the season for giving — that’s what they say, anyway. There are times when in order to take care of others you need to take care of yourself first. It sounds counterintuitive and certainly against the spirit of the holidays, but sometimes it’s true.

Here are three tips to help you make more time for yourself:

1. Practice making intentions.
When you are not fully conscious, you are not completely aware of your thought process hour by hour. Everything you do or say takes place below the level of awareness. Making intentions gives you the opportunity to choose to take time for you.

2. Leave your comfort zone.
Make an intention to do something that takes you out of your comfort zone or that scares you or makes you feel strange. Making an intention to be brave makes you super aware of yourself--the sense that you own your day, your life. It's easy to feel that other people drive your life when, in fact, you are the only one who has the ability for choice.

3. Take on challenges or change.
Life never remains static. Learn to live skillfully by choosing to take on challenges or change. Allowing your mental skill to see things exactly as they are gives you the ability to consciously assess the challenge or change that is required for your personal growth. Once that course of action is set and your choices are clear and consistent, possibilities open up to make more time and space for yourself. 

Your life is truly important; your life is a gift that needs to be cherished and honored. It's difficult to make time in your life without examining or breaking old patterns of organization, control issues, things we can never change. Paradoxically, you actually lose control by limiting your life to these external issues. The real value of your life resides on the inside and that process takes personal time to develop. Decide what you really want in life.

This season, give yourself the gift of time to learn a new skill. This will be time well spent. It will benefit you, those around you and your employer.

So if I have one recommendation for you for this New Year, it is to carve out some space for you. Give yourself the gift of time.