The Gift of ‘Me-Time’

Structuring your life around family and work, no matter how much you may love both, inevitably leads to you giving much of your time and energy to others. There is nothing wrong with this. The work we do and the people we care about provide us with feelings of inspiration, achievement, and joy. Still, it is important to be sure to devote some of our energy inward as a way to ensure our own well-being. Wellness is a gift we give ourselves so that we can continue to perform our responsibilities to those around us.

In a blog post for the Huffington Post’s The Third Metric, Lorna Borenstein writes of the necessity of setting aside time each day to focus on personal well-being. Borenstein is the co-founder and CEO of Grokker, a video network dedicated to meditation, yoga, and wellness. She tells of the guilt she once felt about her “me-time.”

“Shouldn’t I be reviewing a proposal instead of taking a 15-minute walk outside?” Borenstein would ask herself. “Shouldn’t I be spending time with my family at home rather than taking a 60-minute yoga class on Saturday morning?”

She was able to let go of these reservations once she accepted that the time and energy she devoted to herself each day was essential to excelling in every other facet of her life. Many of the challenges related to the scheduling of “me-time” are not actually due to a lack of time but of placing too little priority on self-care. Letting go of guilt about me-time will allow you to start treating it as a necessity rather than a luxury. Borenstein recommends changing your inner monologue away from “I’m being selfish,” to “I deserve this.”

Admitting to yourself that you deserve these wellness activities helps you to shift your perspective. The gifts you give to yourself help to establish in your own mind that your well-being and happiness are just as important as those of the other people in your life.