How do you protect and take care of your mental health?
Are you protective of your time?
How do those questions relate?
I recently had someone ask to schedule something over time that I already had allotted to something else. It would have been easy to say yes, but for one thing.
That allotted time and that other activity have become very important to me. I needed that time in order to fill up my energy so that I could be present and more effective with the people in my life and with the things I needed to do.
Mental health and physical health are inescapably – and critically – intertwined. It seems obvious to say so, however, we don’t always acknowledge the fact. We also don’t always make conscious choices that support one and therefore the other.
Making the deliberate decision to put my allotted time and activity first felt fantastic. Mostly. I had a small twinge of something that might have been guilt for telling someone, “No.” I didn’t really say that; what I said was along the lines of, “That time doesn’t work but I can do this instead.” I protected my time and my activity and still made myself available at a time that could work for both of us.
It’s hard to do, sometimes. It’s hard to step back and take actions that we need in order to be our best selves.
It’s also incredibly important.
How have you protected your time this week? How have you protected your mental and physical health?
Cheers! Here’s to your health!