Every week, every month I tell myself that ‘next week i’ll have time to relax’, to get all those admin bits and pieces done on my ever growing To Do list, but every time my diary becomes full, the To Do list just keeps on getting longer. It seems like it’s not just me, every time I ask someone how they are, what they’re up to, the word ‘busy’ always sneaks in there. It seems we are running around endlessly trying to get things done, complete our tasks and some days there’s hardly enough time to hop in the shower in the morning, we make time for work, but do we make enough time for ourselves?
It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot more recently, and having taken a couple of short breaks in the beautiful UK countryside I decided to put ‘me time’ to the top of my agenda for once. Just a few days of taking time out, whether thats a Digital Detox (find out how I got on with that here) or just escaping your daily routine, giving yourself some ‘me time’ is vital for our mental and physical health and gives us the oomph we need to power through our busy day to day lives.
Slow Down
It’s amazing how many things we can accomplish in one day, but sometimes we just need to give ourselves a break! If we don’t take some time out to slow down, our bodies will do it for us by becoming ill – whether mentally or physically. I knew I needed some time out when I was getting almost daily headaches meaning that I couldn’t physically work after 6pm – that was my body telling me that it was time to stop. Taking the time to slow down and enjoy the simple indulgences of life whether it’s a film with a friend, a spa day or a long walk in the coutryside is sometimes all we need to recharge our own batteries. This weekend we headed to Forest Holidays near Winchester for a break from the rush of the city – evenings spent by the wood fire, in the hot tub, rustling up comfort food and watching films. I took a few photos (force of habit) but the rest of the trip was pure relaxation!
Unplug
Wherever we go, we are always connected, we are drowning in information! I wrote a whole post about the things I learnt from my digital detox, and ‘me time’ without the constant bombardment of emails, texts, news updates is exactly what we need from time to time.
Relax & Unwind
We all need to relax and unwind frequently. Allowing ourselves to spend time doing things that we enjoy, that calm us down and allow us to push that ‘reset’ button. The lovely folk at Doddle kindly sent me some of my favourite products that help me unwind as part of their #DoddleSaysRelax campaign – such as this beautiful Diptyque candle, and a ThisWorks Deep Sleep Spray. Doddle want us to have more time to relax and unwind and I’ve been using their service for about 4 months now, I just pop into my local store where they take care of all my deliveries and post so that I can focus on getting my work done so I can chill out in the evenings. Instead of spending ages waiting in Post Office queues to drop off parcels, or traipsing to the pick up office for my missed deliveries, all of this is taken care of by the purple-shirted folks at the Doddle down my road, and you know what that means? More time to chill!
Enjoy Life!
Why do we work so hard if it’s not so that we can enjoy life?! My weekend away was filled with doing things that I love – which of course meant testing out some gorgeous new beauty products, but also lots of long walks, switching my phone off and just enjoying time with friends. Now that I’m back into my daily routine I’m making more of an effort to switch my computer off and relax, planning some ‘me time’ into my schedule.
