My little moments
How to find time for work and meetings in the same life, set aside enough time for yourself and coexistence with your partner, and spend quality time with your child/children, on business or private trips? How to steal those small moments for yourself during every, but every day?
If I ask myself this question, it seems impossible to manage to do everything I "have to" and cross all the things from it to the list. When you look on the bright side, everything is possible, it's important to get your priorities in order. :)
I am writing to you as a mother whose three-year-old child spent half of last year at home and not in kindergarten, an entrepreneur who works from home in Germany, with a mother who is in Samobor, a woman whose husband also travels for work. In addition, for the last year and a half I have been employed part-time in Augsburg.
At the moment when I became aware of the fact that the border of mental health is thinner than I think and it is more difficult to spot it in time, and it is increasingly easy to fall into a vortex of negative thoughts and emotions, I firmly decided that it is time to start taking care of myself better and more level.
I realized that no one can and should not care about me more than myself. I could help myself the most, but only when I felt I was ready for it.
In order for this blog not to take on a gray tone, I will not focus on those feelings when I was emotionally difficult, and I did not know the specific reason. In fact, I want to reveal to you what are the little moments in the day that help me keep positive thoughts and tone every day.
⦁ WOW Women's Academy by Petra Čutuk
The first and most important point that I consider a turning point this year is the discovery of the academy, which is "a unique program that combines energy, therapeutic work, meditations, Taoism and NLP methods," as Petra says.
I chose to be part of the academy because I wanted a change and a new way of working on myself. I was attracted to meditation and I wanted to try to learn some new tools, but just like with yoga - I didn't know how, so I didn't even try it until this year.
Through the academy, I learned so many things about us as people, energy in the human body, between people and in the universe, about meditation, about NLP, about food that supports us and works well for us, about a holistic approach to life... I was part of a community of 100 women from 100 different places, under the leadership of a woman who has many years of experience in working on herself and shared it with us through the academy.
5 changes I introduced after the academy:
1. I start the day by opening the balcony so that I can breathe in the fresh air of the new day immediately after waking up and have a few minutes to myself.
2. I give thanks for the little things in my thoughts or by writing 10 things that I am grateful for during the day. Saying a sentence like "Sun, thank you for being here" I also teach my three-year-old daughter. She has already asked the question: "Mom, what is gratitude…?"
3. I meditate because I feel that it has a positive effect on me, calms my thoughts, redirects me to important things, reminds me that it is important that I am well, aware and present in the moment. Until now, I practiced guided meditations.
4. I do 7-minute breathing exercises with basic body movements (according to Mark Whitwell's book "The Promise"). During the academy, I practiced several breathing exercises every day for more than 7 minutes in total. Every night before going to sleep, I also remind my child to take a few conscious breaths and put his hand on his heart to hear it...
5. I try to give the world as much love as I can, even in my silence and thoughts. What I want to achieve is not easy, and I may get killed along the way with some people, but I believe that this is all part of the process of change.
⦁ Yoga
Yoga has been running through my life for the past few years, but only this year I noticed that yoga was to blame for me and that's why I wasn't regular, because for a certain period of time I didn't even feel relief and relaxation after yoga. It was more like I had a good stretch, which was not in focus for me. I wanted a mental and spiritual rest after yoga.
What I lacked was a real teacher who would first teach me how to breathe properly. When I found that, learned that the breath is the initiator of the movement and lasts longer than the movement itself, my view of yoga and breathing changed completely. My yoga became the yoga of the heart, thanks to a teacher who teaches exactly that kind of yoga. I went live for a short time this summer, and when I get back into the resting phase with traveling, I'll continue online. Yoga is really for everyone, and yes, each of us does it differently and for different reasons, but what is certain is that it can have a calming, healing, fulfilling, therapeutic effect on everyone...
⦁ Aromatherapy, of course :)
Entering the world of aromatherapy thanks to my mom, I research and try much more than natural cosmetics that contain essential oils. In addition to enjoying and learning more and more about skincare, I relax once a week in a warm bath with essential oils, I use a diffuser in my apartment every day, natural scents have become an integral part of my life in all forms...
What you are reading is a new way of my life that I started living a few years ago. Change is what is constant, and what led me to this blog, led me to take care of myself the best I know how. I'm typing to you while swinging on the swing, enjoying my coffee, listening to classical music and smiling because I'm happy that I dared to open up to you this much!
I want to tell you… Be brave to embrace change, explore what suits you outside the box that society has taught us, dare to try something new, be patient and visualize and dream about what you want to achieve - there will be a time for everything. And when the time comes for everything, believe that it will become crystal clear that what is important is invisible to the eyes, can only be seen clearly with the heart, and that is exactly why it is important that you are right, with yourself.
I hope my self-care methods have inspired you at least a little.
What do your little moments look like?
Sending a hug.
Ivan