The world has changed in the blink of an eye. Almost overnight working from home has become the new normal.
In this unprecedented situation, and amidst handling work, home and my two boys, I discovered something important. The value of “me time” and why it matters to all of us.
Not carving out some “me time” can have an effect on your wellbeing. Different people may experience this in different ways—some may experience tiredness, some may resort to stress eating, some may get annoyed with little things and so on. The root cause of these negative feelings is often not fully articulated. But trust me, it’s your heart and body demanding the much overdue “me time” from you.
In today’s world, we are all handling many compelling priorities, be it work or personal life. We have tall aspirations and ambitions on every front.
Personally, as a mother, a working professional, and as a woman, it is easy for me to get caught up in a cycle of constantly doing things for others. While prioritizing my family, my work, and my home, I often tend to miss out on carving out time for myself.
My family, my teammates, and my colleagues collectively occupy a major part of my mind space and my day to day life. My mind is always bustling with thoughts and plans about work, calls, people, teams, communities I am part of, the household chores, courtesies, communication, collaboration…you get the drift.
With continuous transactions like these, days tend to stretch. Priorities keep piling up and we lose track of time. In such a scenario, if we don’t give ourselves some time to recharge, we run the risk of burning out, both emotionally and physically.
But don’t get me wrong. When I say, “me time”, I am not saying that you must do something elaborate. It can be simple activities like reading books, watching a lighthearted movie or a video, cooking, spending some quality time with your friends and family, laughing over a silly joke, light exercises, writing down your thoughts, learning something new, taking that power nap, and sometimes not doing anything at all! How about just being and not thinking about a task or an outcome or a conditional transaction for a change! This itself will lead to positive outcomes!
In that sense, any time you spend on yourself, whether it’s a self-development activity or just a break from all the bustle, qualifies as “me time.”
Here are some benefits we can experience by carving out some “me time”:
- Allows you to rejuvenate
- Allows you to let your imagination thrive and journey to another world
- Brings a better balance to your life as you learn to empathize with the people around you and their situations
- Grow as an individual by learning something new—a perspective, a skill, something creative, something innovative or anything that brings joy
- Helps you develop mindfulness. You learn to quiet the inner chatter and find joy in simple things, like listening to the chirping birds, the smile in the guy delivering newspapers to you. You start appreciating the finer nuances of life
- Brings balance to your thought process, gives you a breather
- Nourishes the soul leading to happiness
- Is meditative and a leveler
- Prevents guilt occurring from not being fair to self
- Helps in being fair to others and aids in decision making
- Improves productivity, gives space and strength
- Overall a great well-being initiative
I understand that finding “me time” is easier said than done, but it’s something we owe to ourselves. We need to learn to make room for “me time” in our list of priorities. Even a short break of 15-30 minutes thrice a week or more often, can do wonders to our overall wellbeing.
Let’s work on elevating our own life and experience. Let’s take a pledge to schedule some “me time” whenever possible to take care of our wellbeing.
I would love to hear your perspectives on how you carve out your me-time. Whenever I tried and found some me-time, I have experienced magic! Let’s all agree that we can all do a better job of addressing this need.
Let me sign off by saying that while it may seem to be difficult at first but find some time for “me time” and you’ll experience the magic firsthand.
About the author:
Chitra Venkatachalapathy is a senior manager within Customer & Marketing at Deloitte Consulting India Private Limited. Chitra has more than 15 years of experience in customer relationship management, customer engagement, and digital commerce platforms, and has worked in the US and India.
She leads the Salesforce B2B commerce capability and spearheads several large-scale digital transformation programs enabling our clients to achieve their ambitions. She is based in Bangalore, living with her husband and two sons.
The views expressed here are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of her current, former, or future employers or any organization with which she is associated.