I’ve decided to gift myself some ME Time.

What’s ME Time?
(notice I capitalise me? That’s to emphasis to myself that I’m important!)

ME Time is time for me. For my nourishment, replenishment, for my growth. Because I can’t give out to others if I’m a stunted withered soul.

It’s like what they tell you as you’re about to take off on a flight –
(remember those times?)
Grab the oxygen mask and use it yourself before you look to share it with others.

Same deal with ME Time.

We have this perfect opportunity right now during this pandemic. Many of us here in Australia are in lockdown, or we’re working from home, or for whatever reason we find that we have more disposable time on our hands than we’ve ever had before.

It’s a perfect opportunity to grab some ME Time.

So what is ME Time?

For me I’ve decided to institute a daily routine of yoga and meditation, every day without fail. 20 minutes of yoga minimum, 20 minutes of meditation minimum. That’s not too onerous, right? I can find 40 mins at the beginning of each day. And that then sets me up for the rest of the day.

What I’m finding though is that the 20 minutes yoga often becomes 30-40 minutes because I get into it. Same with the meditation. I end up doing 30 minutes or more. And that’s great. But bare minimum, 20/20.

That’s me – my thing. Your thing might be gardening. Or sewing. Or getting out on a bike. Or cooking. Whatever it is that gives you pleasure, and nourishes your soul. Simply getting out into nature is good ME Time.

This whole pandemic has made me reassess what’s important. And yes family is important. Of course. And those that I love.

But I’m also important.
My health.
My well being.
My mental state.

This is not selfishness, this is not narcissism.
This is survival.

And like I say, I can’t hope to give out to others if I’m depleted.
Physically, mentally, emotionally.

I’ve been watching this show on telly called Alone. In Australia it’s on SBS on Demand. It’s a reality tv show where ten people are dropped off into remote wilderness and they have to survive for as long as possible. And the last man, or woman, standing wins $500,000. The unique twist to this is that there’s no crew. They film themselves. So they are totally alone.

I’ve never watched a reality tv show before. I’m serious. Never. They’ve always seemed too contrived and manipulative for my tastes. But there’s something very real and authentic about this show. And what’s interesting about it is that as the days click by and as it gets tougher and tougher, these people become more inward looking, and dare I say it, spiritual.

And invariably, what causes them to tap out and ask to be picked up and taken back to civilisation is often not because they’re starving, or they’re scared of bears or cougars or whatever, but because they miss their loved ones, or because they break mentally.

Interestingly. so far with the seasons I’ve watched, none of them meditate.

But I mention this in relation to ME Time because we can so easily forget that we need to look after ourselves. In the past we have so often defined ourselves by our work, by what we do, that’s who we are. But this pandemic has forced many of us to redefine ourselves outside of our work, because we’ve either lost our jobs or our jobs have changed or we’ve realised that perhaps there are other more significant ways to consider ourselves, other than through work.

For many of us, the work ethos that we thought was crucial we’ve discovered isn’t that crucial anymore.

What’s crucial is ME Time.