The need to retreat
Fit girls are often busy girls. We (literally ;) ) run from one meeting to another and are not often found relaxing on the couch. Maybe you are reading this on your couch or bed (although I find that unlikely), but in case you are: I am jealous of you! My life has been super duper busy for a couple of years now, which of course I am solely responsible for. I love extra projects to take on although I'm still a student and work a lot. Oh, and I try to have a social life, work out and feed my addiction to TV series. I'm definitely not complaining because I am the one who decides what obligations I'm taking on in my life, but sometimes the pressure of deadlines and the huge size of my to-do-list become too much and I notice that I need to schedule some me-time. And here's why you should too!
Last week I went on a 2-day retreat in my own country, the Netherlands. Still, it was many kilometres from my home and it felt like I was on a real holiday. Although I relaxed big time, went swimming, read the awesome book #GIRLBOSS, hung out with my family and even went for a run in the forest (happy me in the picture), something was nagging me in the back of my mind. What did I need to do at work when I got back? What would the grade for my thesis be? Did I need to do some more work for the proejct I am working on? Then I realized that I should let go of all these questions and focus on the here and now. Which is easier said than done.
Really, you need some serious me-time in your busy schedule, otherwise you'll go crazy or make mistakes at those things you're so passionately working on. Finally I managed to focus on the fact that I was on a tinie tiny holiday and that I should enjoy as much as I could before I'd going back to my busy life again. And it helped! After two days, we went back home and I felt so relaxed. I had two days of no obligations whatsoever and I fully focused on the fact that I could finally do whatever I felt like. In a sense you could say that I tried to become more mindful - focusing on the present instead of the past and future. Steffi wrote an article about becoming more mindful and that was my guideline. I paid attention to what was happening at the moment and not what I was going to do or did in the past. I often notice that I am already playing out the day in my head, what I am going to do and what it will be like. From now on I am going to try to focus solely on the here and now and get all my joy from the present moment.
More relaxing, less worrying
You as a busy fit girl should do so too! You will notice how much more relaxed you will feel and how much more you will appreciate small things. There's no advantage in looking ahead or behind, there's nothing you can do about both of them. Don't worry about things you cannot change. Instead, focus on the now and you will see that that to-do-list doesn't control your life and your mind will clear up.
Who's joining me in becoming more mindful?
