What does it mean to spend time with yourself?
Although I’m married and I have a son, I spend a lot of time alone. We’re all three usually just doing our own thing.
All of the other people I know live far away from me. So unless I do something with my son or with my husband, I am usually by myself.
Yesterday I discovered something interesting. I discovered that there is a difference between being by yourself and spending time with yourself.
You can be by yourself all the time and still not be connected to yourself. That is usually the case for me. I am usually so busy working that I don’t have time to devote to myself.
But yesterday I took time from myself in order to spend time for myself.
Write on your wall in washable crayons
I know. That sounds completely silly and ridiculous. But I did that yesterday. I found some washable crayons in the house and I used them to write on my wall. It was a self challenge. I dared myself to take the crayons and write on the wall. That’s not something we do as adults. We know we’re not supposed to write on the walls. That’s something that children do. And when they do it, our job as adults is to scold them. But maybe we should be joining them from time to time and letting our inner child out to play for a moment.
Writing on the wall was interesting.
It reminded me of when I was a little girl. And it was good to feel the kind of lightness we feel as children. That feeling of being free and having no cares. What I wrote on the wall was “Allow yourself to be”.
I think that we tend to lose track of who we really are once we reach a certain age. We become preoccupied with trying to measure up to one or another standard. We start caring too much how the rest of the world perceive us. And we spend pretty much the rest of our lives trying to be what we think we need to be instead of being who we are.
Spend time with yourself making something
Yesterday I also spent a few hours doing some arts and crafts. That’s something else we do when we’re children that most of us stop doing once we grow up.
I decided to try to make something using the two pieces of the coconut shell I split open on Day 8 to make that dairy free mango coconut ice cream. Right now I’m trying to shape it into a coconut shell clutch. It won’t be finished for a few days. So at least I have a few days that I will definitely be taking a break from my work to spend time with myself doing something that helps me get in closer connection with my truth.