Monday, October 09, 2006

Take Time To Pause

With school taking up most of my time and energy, sometimes I forgot to realize that I need to take time to step back and pay attention to what is going on around me. Sometimes, it's just that there do not seem to be enough hours in the day to do everything that is required by myself and by others.

The last few weeks have made me realize that I have not been taking good care of myself, both physically and mentally. Tonight, I decided to take a little time to sit and meditate and just calm myself from the chaos that seems to surround me every time I start a new semester. When I was finished, I felt refreshed and ready to plunge back into what I need to do. I need to remember that taking just a few minutes to pause so that I can take care of myself makes a huge difference.

It is easy to push aside things that are important to you but not pertinent to the things that tend to get high priority, such as school. What has been pushed aside in this case, is my attention to my spiritual needs.

As you most likely know, I use this blog as a way to keep track of things that I have been thinking about regarding religion and spirituality. However, this past few weeks I realized that I haven't taken the time to slow down enough to be able to think about what is going on in my life when it comes to my spiritual quest. I have sat down at my computer a few times, thinking that I would write something, only to find out that I couldn't think of anything to write about. Tonight, I realized why.

So, I encourage everyone to take time to step back from their busy schedules and take some time to pause, look around and be in the moment.

7 comments:

Hrafnkell Haraldsson said...

I think this is one of the problems we have as a society - we are unable to slow down and take the time to just be, to sort our thoughts out. We have personal computers, cell-phones, and all sorts of devices that are constantly beeping or demanding our attention, and we cannot free ourselves of these interruptions without an effort of will on our part. A good long drive always helps for me - just focusing on the driving lets the back corners of my mind clear out and often gets the thought processes flowing freely again. So does sitting out in nature, or a long walk. It's oxymoronic, perhaps, but I think we need to take time away from the demands of living in order to actually live.

Angela said...

I really like that:

We need to take time away from the demands of living in order to actually live.

Bernulf said...

Makes one wonder a bit more about the definitions we commonly accept as to what constitutes living - I for one don't think that the current culimation of my ancestors' reproductive efforts was intended to spend life meeting the deadlines and demands of others ;)

Sojourner, I hope that you are doing better, and taking better care of yourself - it will be good to see you posting in here again when your projects are all sorted out and humming along.

moonie said...

Take your time, live your life away from this screen for a while :-) I, for one, will now take inspiration from your words, and go walk my dog through the fallen leaves.
Thank you.

Luna said...

Hi, I sometimes find that it's easy to let other demands be more important than my spiritual life. I just remind myself that it's my spiritual life that fuels my mundane one, and if I ignore the former for too long, I'm cooked.
Anyway, I think this is the first time I've read and commented on your site. It looks great. I just started a pagan-focused site at stars-for-eyes.blogspot.com. Merry meet!

Penguin said...

Sojourner, I am in the same "boat" as you. With this job, I have made even less time for myself and what is "important".
You have inspired me.
Thank you.

S. Nichole said...

Thanks everyone for their comments. I have needed some time to sort out what has been going on between school life, family life, online life.

I will continue to post but most likely at a slower rate than this summer.