If you’re reading this, then most likely you know me. And you know that I am a busy body who loves to be involved in organizations and projects, and that I love to explore new places.
That being said I secretly (until now) love this slow down on life. Coming into 2020, my goal was to set boundaries that would help me limit my time doing things that weren’t necessary to my life and that weren’t adding value to my day. Little did I know that the universe was really going to deliver on this, without me even having to do it myself!
Why I love this forced slow down is that everyone is really on the same playing field right now. We are constantly bombarded by events, photos, videos, and highlight reels on social media. And that creates FOMO (fear of missing out, it’s real y’all!). Maybe not everyone feels it as much as others, but I would like to imagine that everyone has felt like they were missing out on something at one point or another following a mindless scroll through your preference of social media feed.
We haven’t been bombarded with photos of people traveling to exotic places, parents taking their children to some hip event, etc. We haven’t been bombarded with things that often times make us feel that we aren’t doing enough, that we aren’t trendy enough, that make us feel as though we are not living our best lives.
The truth is, we are doing enough by being home with our loved ones. We are doing enough by sitting down and evaluating what really is of true value in our lives. We are doing enough by just being in the moment and taking this all day-by-day.
All of this came to me when I was taking a shower this morning. It just seemed to hit me as I was enjoying the fact that there is nothing on my calendar right now for the foreseeable future. It makes me joyful to know that when this is all over, I am going to have complete control over what I decide to put on my calendar and where the remainder of this year is going to go. I get to set the tempo for the rest of 2020. And the forced “stay safe at home” is quite possibly the event that will help me most in achieving my word of the year of “boundaries”.
So my ending thoughts are this. When we are able to resume what we would consider our “normal” lives again, take some time to step back and think about your choices and the activities you put on your agenda. Are these things that you want to do or are these things that you only want to do because other people are doing them? Is this activity going to add value to your life? Is this activity going to create more stress than it is joy? Make sure your choices fill your life & your family life with happiness.