Quiet Time Alone
If you read the title of this and just said, “Amen” or “I’d love that!” Keep reading. You’re not alone.
But you want to be alone! :p LOL!
If you work with others, have a family, and are constantly leading people, encouraging others, selling a product/service, then raising kids after work or caring for family members, then perhaps you understand too that you crave just having some quiet time alone.
Time where no one is talking.
Silence.
Where you can actually hear the thoughts in your head.
I never realized how much I needed this until coming back to “normal” after the pandemic and after having experienced work from home and a full enough staff to quietly get some things done on my own, uninterrupted. Then when we were short staffed, I was working the shop 6 days a week, talking to people all day, then coming home at night to then jam through homework, dinner, bath, bedtime and crashing out myself before starting it all over again.
In addition to eating well, exercising, and getting enough sleep for energy, I began to realize what I really needed, was quiet time alone.
I know that my sound impossible to do in this season of your life, but even if that meant 15 minutes after work before going home to the kids to just not talk to anyone or hear anyone talk, it can make a difference. Fifteen minutes in the car. It’s the margin, the boundaries, the slow down you hear about and know you need to allow yourself a minute to breathe.
If you also need some encouraging reading about slowing down and tend to have a packed schedule, a book recommended to me by my friend Brad that I absolutely loved and read twice is “To Hell With The Hustle: Reclaiming Your Life in an Overworked, Overspent, & Overconnected World” by Jefferson Bethke. It was so good it led me to another book I couldn’t put down, “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World.” by John Mark Comer. I highly recommend both books if you are a go, go, go kind of person and need help slowing down and taking breaks.
I’ve learned that slowing down a little to take time alone is what I need to stay well and to come back to the world as the best version of myself for others. Maybe you need this too!
erin’s tip
If you have the opportunity to book yourself a 24 hour staycation, do it! If not, take a yoga class or a walk in the neighborhood. At the very least, start by giving yourself little breaks at home in the shower, on the balcony, in your car, or anywhere you can retreat to for 15 minutes of silence.
This is a real selfie I took in my van in the parking lot to remind myself to take 15 minutes between one work event to another to breathe, sit in silence, and recoup with a little quiet time alone.