It’s totally normal for me to have a lot going on in my life, I laughed when I told a friend everything I had going on one weekend and they replied, “I’m exhausted just listening to you.” I love everything happening in my life, even if it doesn’t always leave me with a lot of ‘down time’, but I do have to remember to take time for myself, so that I can really enjoy myself and have fun… and things don’t start to turn into ‘obligations’. I mean, who wants to get burned out on their own life or to stop looking forward to things they used to love? But even with an arsenal of tools to keep me at my best, meditation, gym, a good night’s sleep, eating healthy – the possibilities are endless – sometimes things can just randomly start to seem a little… more difficult. The same things that used to engage and inspire you inexplicably start to drain you and you can’t seem to figure out why.

Have you ever felt like sometimes everything is smooth sailing, life flows easily, there’s no effort with anything; and others where, even though maybe nothing is technically different, things just feel harder, nothing is flowing smoothly, lots of effort everywhere you turn. Sometimes things can shift between these two ends of the spectrum just from one day to another, or even from on hour to the next. And there’s definitely no need to waste time guessing which one we would all rather experience.

We have so many different responsibilities in life, from work to friends, family, partners… feeling the need to take care of others, make sure things get done, etc., that we get to the end of the day and haven’t even taken five minutes for ourselves. It can feel like all of our attention, and energy, ends up on everyone and everything but ourselves. Sounds kind of familiar right? Sounds kind of exhausting too.

We are often so busy rushing through the daily grind, meeting the demands on our attention, time, and energy… that we don’t even realize the shift where we start to feel less energized and excited and more drained and stressed.

How often do we ever even consider the possibility that just shifting ourselves, our own attention, and energy, can be the thing that shifts whether we are experiencing the former or latter of the two opposites I described above. I’ve been feeling like things have been a little less ‘inspired’ and moving a little less smoothly in my own life over the last few weeks, so I thought this was worth writing about because we often don’t even realize what’s happening, or how easy it can often be to create more movement and ease again. Even though it might seem counter intuitive, and culturally we definitely tend to associate giving to ourselves as being selfish or self-centered, really, things are very much the opposite. Giving to yourself and taking time to make sure our attention and energy is ‘on ourselves’ and in our own space, as opposed to out on everyone and everything outside of us, actually gives us more energy and ability to really be present in life and interact with, and give to, others on a higher level. I don’t always need to know exactly what it is that might be slowing things down for me, I just need the reminder that it’s important to give to myself sometimes… be a little indulgent, have some fun, step away from the downward spiral of serious and responsibility and step back into movement, creativity and discovery, and start to bring my energy back to myself.

What that looks like is different for everyone, there really is no right or wrong, what matters is just that we take time to give to ourselves and reconnect with feeling validated, so that we can have more, for ourselves in our own life, and in turn, be able to give more to others.

So if you haven’t lately, take some time, be a little “selfish”, and do something just for you… have some fun and start to bring your energy back to you… right where it belongs.