The Art of Relaxation

"Rest and peace should not be left until you are deceased. They are two vital life ingredients everybody needs and seeks."
-Rasheed Ogunlaru

Today's women juggle many more roles than our sisters did just fifty years ago. We're daughters, sisters, girlfriends, friends, wives, mothers, stepmothers, grandmothers, aunts, nieces, cousins and partners. Many of us are also employees, employers,  leaders, volunteers, business owners and caregivers. Others are also experts in their fields, majority breadwinners in the family or even sole breadwinners. Yet with all of these roles, we often take ourselves for granted; not realizing that if we don't take care of ourselves, we can't fulfill all of those other roles that are important to us. 

I struggle with balance almost every day. It's only within the last few years that I've been able to come up with a plan that works for me. 

A Change in Scenery: the Importance of Time Spent Alone

Photo Credit: womenwithdrive.org

The other day, a friend of mine said, "Everyone's need for 'alone time' is different." She was right, of course. My husband doesn't seem to need much and some of my friends seem to avoid being alone at all costs. Still others crave the time by themselves and never seem to get it. That's sad, to me, because I believe that women our age really do need to take time for ourselves to regroup and refresh. We're often juggling way too many obligations and we owe it to ourselves to take time away, even if only for a half hour.

My need for time to myself has ebbed and flowed over the years. I can remember when I was a little girl, I loved stealing away by myself with a good book either in the backyard on the hammock, underneath the Christmas tree during the holidays or in my room to get away from my little brother. Then something changed. As a teenager, time alone caused me to worry if I was "popular" enough or too "nerdy." Later still, during an early marriage, I thought "if only I could just be alone for awhile" only to panic when I was, in fact, really alone for the first time in my life!