Parenting is all about giving. It is a beautiful thing because giving is what we find incredibly fulfilling on the soul level. When you give love unconditionally you never regret one moment of it. However, with giving in abundance there is a personal need for recharging and rejuvenating. We must create space to fill our inner cup of love so that we have more to give.
When our love cup is running empty, we face problems with impatience, frustration, and sometimes anger. None of us want to be dishing that out to our loved ones. When you go a long time without eating, you get cranky, at least most of us anyway. When you expend a lot of energy giving without refuelling, you also run into crankiness, which is why me time is so important.
It isn’t selfish to need time to rejuvenate, it is loving. Loving and caring for yourself so that the best of you, the real you, is available to give. As the wise saying goes “You must love yourself before you love another.” If you do not love yourself, you cannot give the best of you. It is simply not fully available without self love.
Now that we are in tune with how important me time is- what exactly is the best, most effective type of me time?
Silence and Stillness
Does that surprise you, or are you saying Hallelujah?
You may be thinking my favorite me time involves being with my friends or pursing my favorite creative activities. I think those are great, too! Yet, in my opinion they do not have the ability to recharge our soul and cup of love in the same way.
Silence and stillness allow us time to disconnect from the craziness of our minds. It is probably safe to say that for most of us we are our own worst critic. We need time to silence the inner critic and provide unconditional, nonjudgmental love to ourselves so that we have that same type of love replenished to give to others. In busy times we may love what we are doing, but we are also distracting. Distracting ourselves from the tangle of thoughts in our minds that require daily attention in order to remove the weeds from our internal garden.
The great part is you do not have to spend tons of time doing this to produce a wonderful transformation and self correction. 10 minutes can work wonders! Make it a habit of giving yourself at least 10 minutes every day to refill your cup of love that is vital to your inner peace and overall ability to give.
For all my fellow friends living in a noisy household thinking Silence- Yeah Right! Silence for me includes a white noise sound machine or soundscapes music. ☺ The point is you allow yourself to relax, feel love and forgiveness from your inner being, and you will make that same energy available to give to your loved ones and to humankind.
☼Cheers to your inner peace, my friends! ♥