How are you using your energy? It is so easy for us to be going through the day without having any conscious awareness of where our energy goes.
Carol had been feeling increasingly frustrated that she could not find any time for herself. It seemed that she was constantly responding to requests and demands. I suggested that she had to block in time for herself. She chose two hours on Tuesday afternoon. When Tuesday came she had to really hold herself to this time. Her husband asked her that morning if she wanted to go to an appointment with him. Normally she would have automatically said yes. This time she said no because it meant she would not be back in time for her appointment with herself. What she realized about herself was that she tended to put her needs last and that she readily agreed to other people’s requests. It was like she was on automatic pilot without really being aware that she had choices in how she responded.
Carol became aware that she needed to change her process. Since she was little she had been taught that it was selfish to want time for self. She now realized that as an adult it was up to her to decide how to allocate her time. The result was that the new self awareness freed Carol to listen to her voice and decide what she wanted to do.
We all have habits that we do automatically. It is when we stop the automatic process that we can consciously decide if it makes sense to continue in the same way or make changes that reflect better what we want for ourselves.
