How to Stop and Smell the Sunflowers: Finding Your Zen with a Crazy Busy Schedule

October 12, 2015

I’ve always been the person that loves having a packed schedule. In high school and college, I performed by best when running from activity to activity, packing my days full with school, work-outs, friends and riding horses (a lot of riding horses lol). As someone who would consider myself to lean more towards that A-type of personality, these kind of feelings makes total sense! I like routine, I like knowing what the future week looks like, planning activities gives me a sense of security and control. But for everyone who is this A-type personality or knows someone who is (maybe even loves someone who is) you know, we can have a tendency to run ourselves down, overload our schedule thinking we’re super human and sometimes crash and burn!

Turns out, I’m not super human and odds are you aren’t either (although I’m still not convinced my dad isn’t Superman). When wear yourself down you exhaust all your resources emotionally, physically and spiritually which leaves next to nothing left over for yourself or the people you love like friends and family. Sharing these feelings with my other A-type personality friends and family has been a blessing because they’ve come up with little ways to keep from the over worn feeling that can feel all to familiar.

However, when I’m off the never-ending treadmill of which I call my schedule, sometimes I can feel lost, uninspired and even unproductive, which may be why I can at times avoid carving out time to find quietness, peace and my own kind of zen. But the thing is, when we push ourselves to not only recharge but also do something that doesn’t come naturally to us, it helps us flex those sides of us that aren’t as strong as say… our ability to juggle 10 meetings in one week. With that said, whether you’re an A-type or a B-type or whatever, Seek Wander Share is challenging you to find time to explore your zen this week.

Use your A-type personality to your advantage and schedule a committed time every week for yourself. This isn’t time that you can switch with something else in your schedule if a last-minute meeting comes up or ignore all together and reschedule for next week. Make sure you’re scheduling it at a time when you can mentally commit to relaxing, recharging and finding your zen. For instance, if you have a particularly brutal work out session on Monday evenings, believe it or not, you won’t have the energy to relax, recharge and find your zen because finding your zen isn’t just eating and dropping dead at the end of the day. It’s a conscious effort to partake in the activities that fill your soul so you can go back out into the world with the energy you need to be the best you! So be thoughtful when you schedule this time and don’t throw it away for another meeting.

Spend time reflecting on what activities make you feel recharged inside and outside. As Melissa’s best friend, I feel confident in saying that Mel feels renewed and recharged when she’s spent time hiking or being outside with nature. For me, I love learning about other people’s stories. One night I spend probably 2 hours listening to Story Corps which was incredibly eye-opening. I also love just sitting outside at a cafe people watching by myself. What’s important here is to focus on an activity or state that makes you feel renewed with more energy, strength and inspiration. I want to challenge everyone whether they are extroverted or introverted (getting energy from interaction or alone-time) to choose an activity that renews you that you can do alone.

I’ll tell you why. We’ve already identified that finding “down time” for our personalities is hard enough, sometimes we even make excuses and avoid it, it’s not in our nature, so to tie our time for zen to another person’s schedule can tie your ability to get your zen to another excuse. What if they bail or have a meeting pop up unexpectedly? Also, it is always helpful to find time to spend with yourself, undistracted and uninfluenced by the thoughts of others no matter how positive they might be. Part of finding your zen is that it need to be YOUR ZEN, not zen that was influenced or spurred on by another party. This means whenever you start to feel you need to take a step back, you know how to get your zen, recharge and renew all by yourself needing no one in particular to make it happen. This can be boost your renewed energy with a power of self-confidence and self-assurance that you might not be able to get if your zen is somehow tied to someone else.

Once you carved out the time, committed to your zen and identified what makes you feel renewed and recharged, make it a habit. Be realistic with your schedule and obligations but don’t give yourself the short end of the stick by not spending time in your zen on a regular basis. It may come hard to believe, but spending this time for yourself will actually make you MORE PRODUCTIVE, HAPPIER, HEALTHIER and STRONGER. After all, what more could we ask for?