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Ana Maria González
Choosing to Relax and Focusing on Relaxing
Reflecting on my “sabbatical” … (took three months off work and went to a small remote town in Italy) and, wanted to share a cool awareness I discovered about myself. Maybe you’ll see some of yourself in my words.
One of the reasons I took some time off was to make a conscious choice to take better care of myself. I realized that working 14 hours a day, traveling all over the world for clients and all the craziness that that lifestyle brings was exciting, exhilarating and something I loved, but there was always a little pressure to get everything done and not much time down to replenish and recharge! No matter how long it made the day, no matter how much sleep I was getting (or not getting), no matter what, everything needed to get done and I was always pushing myself. (I want to add something here along the lines of finding I could always add one more hour to my work …) This was highly productive, but at what cost?
So I chose to take some down time and make a conscious choice to take better care of myself. The plan was to do nothing but just relax, sleep, read, walk in nature, ride horses, hang out … focus on my sole priority: take care of myself, listen to myself, be more intimate with myself. So I got to spend time reading and riding horses and hanging out. And the more relaxed I became, the more I realized that being relaxed is an inner focus/choice. And amongst all this relaxation there was another ingredient, there was a shift of focus.
When I came back to work at the beginning of the year, I came back to a full schedule of work to deliver. Thanks to the system I’ve developed over the years, I was able to focus on what was truly a priority and what could wait. I really had to make it a total life inventory of my commitments so I could trust it. And it took discipline on a daily basis to stay focused on getting done what needed to get done that day and to stop “doing” at the designated time. This was huge. I was taking care of myself and getting done all that I needed to. This was a life changing experience and so much different than a New Years resolution. All I did was change my focus and now it feels as though I’m running my life instead of my life running me.
Since I’ve been back, I have been back into my “old” life, with four straight weeks of delivery. But amazingly enough nothing has changed from my time in Italy. I’ve been able to reinforce the new behaviors of choosing/focusing on being relaxed, taking care of myself and still get everything done that needs to get done. Having my system in place is the support system I needed to make this inner shift. I’ve a big smile on my face, because now I’m not only getting everything done, I’m relaxed and my days also include hanging out, riding horses… and weekends are now time off, instead of time to catch up on all the doing!!!
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