10 Ways to Slow Down Your Life
Do you ever feel like you are barely keeping your head above water? I know I do. The last couple weeks I shared with you about my tendency to pile too much on, then spill it on those closest to me. I also have a tendency to think I am managing everything and everyone well, but my soul and body are screaming otherwise.
Some days I do want to throw in the towel, I admit. But I can’t, these parts of life aren’t going anywhere. I believe knowing your personal “red flags” can help prevent the breakdown. In this post, I shared some of my own red flags to consider in your life.
After realizing we may be headed into a breakdown, what can we do to help manage all our responsibilities better?
The answer lies in margin.
Dr. Richard Swenson in his incredible book titled Margin, defines margin as ’the space between our load and our limits”. There has to be some space in our days between our load and our limits to listen to our souls and let the Holy Spirit speak.
You are probably like, “Yes, I need that, but how in the world do I incorporate that?”
Funny you should ask, here are ten different ways to incorporate more margin into your life.
Take a walk during the day. When I worked long shifts at the hospital, I would go take a walk outside sometimes twice a day. It was nice to reminded of the beautiful outdoors. It reminded me that the world was still going on outside while I had been so engulfed in my work.
Sit down to eat your meals. Not in your car, not at your desk, not shove and run, really sit down and eat.
Allow 10 minutes between each appointment. Hopping from meeting to meeting? Try to schedule a break in between.
Give yourself the gift of at least 20 minutes a day. Get up early in the morning, take a long bath at night, or lock yourself in the bathroom, which I totally used to do. Just make it a priority to treat yourself daily.
Take a nap. I used to have a sweet friend that would go to her car every day during lunch, set an alarm and take a quick nap to revive herself. Seriously research it, some of the most successful people take a daily power nap.
Make your to do list for the day, but then prioritize 1-2 things. By prioritizing your most important daily task, you can focus on what really matters and let go of the rest. You can also experience a quick win by completing your most important task; thereby providing momentum to complete another.
Let someone help you. Enough said. People ask, so say yes. There is no gold medal at the end of this race for doing it all by yourself. (Preaching to myself)
Set an alarm on your phone three times a day to stop. Spend that time being grateful, praying, sitting still, closing your eyes, whatever works. I learned this from Jen Hatmaker’s book, 7 Days of Christmas. This pause allows for you to gain some perspective in the day to day tasks.
Journal- Girl, get those thoughts out on paper. Enough of this marinating in your head with all the crazy. Brain dump it out!
Take 3 slow, deep breaths when you start to feel anxious, or irritated. Deep breathing is something we rarely do. The action of deep breathing brings much needed oxygen to our frontal lobes of our brains. This portion of the brain is responsible for information thinking, rational thought, basically levelheaded thinking. We need this part of our brain to make decisions. Making decisions from the emotional brain can lead to further frustration. The smart part of the brain is there to assist but we must slow down enough to allow it.
I challenge you to try one of these today. Let me know how it goes. I would love to hear from you!
Love, B
