Time as a barrier
I get it, time is a barrier for me too. It is common for people to want to heal or improve their mental wellbeing, but they get stopped in their tracks with “where do I find the time.” There are only 24 hours in the day and that is not that much when you factor in work, personal relationships, hobbies, self-care (ect.). For me, I thought I did not have time, but I know now I didn’t have time not to strengthen my well-being muscle.
How can you get past the time barrier?
Ask: Is it worth it? What is your primary value for time. Is it worth setting aside a day or an hour if it means you can feel whole in the long run? If well-being is not a value, great move on and reduce shame. Also decide if you current struggle is getting in the way of a value. If it is a value, it may take a first step and missing out on something else for a brief period of time, but the focus on the end goal can make it worth it. Does well-being have nothing to do with any values? Great give it up and reduce shame. (I am bias here but my guess is if you are feeling crummy it’s probably getting in the way of something.
Grow your time: Does your current struggle get in the way of time anyway? Sometimes improving our well-being actually adds more time. We may frantically do things without actually getting much done or move slower when we are depression. What if your time can be filled with things you enjoy? Taking time to improve your well-being may actually allow for that. It has been proven time and time again. Improved well-being increases productivity.
Give yourself a time frame to try it out. Maybe you can commit to 3 months of therapy or whatever speaks to you and just see how it goes. You can decide what makes sense for you if 3 months is too much or too little. Breaking up the time can be way more manageable than planning for a year or a lifetime of therapy. You might even find you meet you goals in the 3-month time.
Use things you have to do anyway to improve your well-being. You may have to complete a certain amount of CE’s in your career. Focus on Ce’s that nurture your well-being and speak to you as an individual. Do you a lot time to exercise? Spend 3 minutes at the end of your exercise to do a personal growth activity. Do you commute? Maybe you spend this time nurturing you.
Keep it small. Not all improvement has to take large amounts of energy. Find out where you can insert small change into your life so that you can see space for big change.
What do you do to find the time? Is it worth it?
