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I want what everyone wants: a happy and healthy life. For me, that also includes calm.
A calm and simple lifestyle does not come naturally, at least not to me in today’s busy world where work, families, and numerous obligations fight for our attention. Combined with our digital world, society’s consumerism pressure, and the many distractions that make it into our day, it is not easy to manifest a calm life. Sometimes, I feel like I’m chasing it, and calm is always one step ahead of me. It takes great dicispline to ban busyness and to create a calm lifestyle. And I am finding that it actually takes work to slow things down, but that effort is worth it.
What does a calm life look like?
For me, it means enjoying the moment. It means waking up slowly in the morning after a good nights rest, drinking a cup of tea, listening to music I enjoy, going for a walk, and having more time for doing what I love. It means not being stressed, overwhelmed, or overworked. It means not being tired all of the time and having time to do absolutely nothing at all.
My favorite Winnie the Pooh quote goes like this; “Doing nothing often leads to the very best something.” Winnie the Pooh just might know the secret to happiness. Doing nothing gives our brains the time it needs to be creative, recover from a hectic day or event, and be imaginative. Doing nothing gives us the opportunity to follow our hearts into doing absolutely anything. Having nothing to do removes distractions so that we can pursue any possibility.
My husband and I were talking the other night about how we never seem to have the time to do nothing. Every weekend books up, often with good things, but many times with obligations that we don’t want to attend. It often feels like we do not have any time at all.
So what can we do about it?
For me, the best factor in saving time for ourselves is to actually book it like a real event, because it is a real event and an important one at that. That event is your life. If you already have it booked for yourself, you cannot give it away to someone else. It may sound funny, but chances are it will work for you when you see that there is no empty space in your calendar that day because you already booked it.
We can also go to bed earlier so that we can wake up earlier in the morning for some more quiet time before work or other responsibilities call away our attention. We can create a morning routine for ourselves that invites more calm into our lives with meditation, a morning walk, yoga, breakfast, cuddles with a beloved pet, or time doing something else that you love.
We can schedule time every day or once a week to dedicate to something that makes us happy; a sport, time with friends, or a hobby.
Saying no more often is also beneficial for our well-being if we feel stressed or over booked. When we accept an invite, we are often saying no to ourselves. Use your discretion to turn down some invitations to make more time for yourself and your own loved ones.
Living with a sense of calm all the time is not possible, but we can cultivate moments of calm for ourselves every day. It makes us feel refreshed, diminishes stress, increases our sense of well-being, and invites happiness into our lives. I hope that today and every day you make time for calm.
