Amplifying Inner Peace: Redesigning Life by Prioritizing Emotional and Mental Health

As your guide on this insightful journey of "From Within," I'll let you in on a little secret; it’s okay to be 'unavailable' sometimes. It's okay to prioritize self-care and reduce stress by stepping away from our incessantly connected life. I share my personal experience, highlighting the profound importance of valuing our time, setting boundaries, and coming to terms with losing a few connections in the process. It’s all about finding that sweet spot between our goals, ambitions, and emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being.

For this episode, we take a quick dive into the festive frenzy and talk about setting boundaries in relationships and prioritizing self-care. Because in the end, how can we give love and care to others if we don't look after ourselves first? As we navigate through this busy holiday season, and life in general, I earnestly encourage you to absorb what resonates with you from this episode. Remember, we are on this path of transformation together; recreating our external experiences by redesigning our internal landscapes, all from within. So, are you ready to embark on this enlightening and enriching journey with me?

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello world and greetings to the journeying souls that have found their way to from within. I am your host and guide. To Shiremoni aka shy, aka blue lotus, the mind healer, welcome to from within, where we travel to the depths of ourselves to uncover, discover, learn and heal, addressing root causes of health issues and mental afflictions from the depths of within. You can recreate your external experience by recreating the internal design. So this will be a quick think of this as this episode, as a reminder to you, a reminder to you when it comes to your self care, especially in regards to your mental health. I want to talk about one of the ways to decrease stress this is a huge practice in my personal life and that is by way of decreasing your availability. Is it really necessary to be available to everyone, everything and all the time? In a world like ours today, where we're constantly connected, constantly connected through all of our notifications, through all of our means of communication, where people can reach you phone, text, social media messages, all of the other apps there's a lot of different things and we're all glued to our phones, so we are always available, whereas back in the day, if you weren't home, you just weren't available. There was no calling, cell phone, text messages and all of that. It was the home phone. And if you couldn't reach you on the home phone you leave a voicemail and that's the end of that. But today things are a little bit different. Productivity is not the only goal in life, and it may be hard to believe that or even feel that way, because we live in like a productivity driven society where if you're not doing something then you know there's kind of like shame or guilt placed upon you in some type of indirect or direct way. Reaching success is what everything and everyone is all about. You know, from the supplements that are advertised to us to advertisements on the television or even on the radio, productivity and reaching success. But can you turn off the phone and your email? Sometimes Do you have a hard time with that with just being unavailable for a moment so that you can tune into the senses, your five senses, enjoy quiet pleasures of the senses as you open your awareness to your environment, such as the natural light in the room, the colors around you, the warmth and flavor of a sip of herbal tea, these very simple things that are around you every day that you may not take the time to appreciate or even notice, because it's so routine and you're so on auto pilot with all of your to-dos and projects and catching up on things and you know obligations and responsibilities of the house and whatever else you have going on. Have you taken the time to just leave that chatter of the mind, turn it down a bit and observe the world around you, the environment, the space around you, finding gratitude of these little things around you that are around you on a daily basis? How will you ever find Balance and equilibrium if you don't know how to shift from your never-ending to-do list and Broken record sounds of stress to the sweetness of engaging with the world through your senses, without an agenda? Without an agenda? So this is something that I practice.

Speaker 1: 4:14

I have gotten to the point where my time for me and my self-care is extremely valuable. I put more value on my time than I do materials and money. Have I lost personal contacts or even clients because I'm not as available as the average person? Yes, I have, and that is okay because that is my boundary. And If I do lose clients or contacts because of that, then it just simply means that there's no alignment. That person may not respect time the way that I do. They may still be running on the program of constantly being available and Other people being constantly available for their immediate needs, and I don't run on that program. I'm not offering an emergency service here, I'm not a crisis intervention service or anything like that, so I really don't have an actual reason to have to be Available right away. In addition to that, I do work as an on-call nurse on the weekends, which is my off-time as a hospice nurse, so I'm already on call on my off-time. So when I tell you that I really put this into practice to manage my mental health and to still have my time to do things that I enjoy, my hobbies, or Even to just sit and be and reflect and be in quiet solitude and peace, I mean fill in the blank with whatever it is that brings you joy and tranquility. Do you have enough time for those practices on a daily basis, or at least regularly?

Speaker 1: 5:52

Frequently, time outside of our goals and ambitions and Climbing the ladder to success and all of these things to just enjoy a hobby or your own time with yourself is essential because during those moments when the mind is not stressed and busy With all of the things that need to be done and haven't been done and everything else that goes on the in the mind. When the mind is not busy with that, when you're doing something that you're enjoying like a hobby or just something for fun, or just relaxing truly relaxing that's when you're able to Kind of reassess your needs or maybe even just remember them, because we get so lost in the sauce when we're going, going, going and doing. There's not much of a a break there, other than when you fall asleep at night and you may not even have a break there either. So when the mind is busy like that, your needs for self-care and for your health and mental health aren't really at the forefront and then you start to kind of lose the idea of what is essential for you and you replace it with these outer things like making money, becoming successful, making sure that you're posting Whatever it is that you do to Contribute to your success or to contribute to your income. Those then become the top, top, top priority, watering down the other more internalized needs that you have.

Speaker 1: 7:27

You are not just an external physical being, you're also emotional, mental and spiritual being as well. So when we're so consumed in the daily life and the outer world things. We forget to take care of our inner world, our inner selves and our inner needs. These Needs usually don't show themselves or you're usually not aware of them until you're in a moment of piece of relaxation, deep relaxation, or In somewhat of a meditative state, which doesn't always have to come from meditation itself. You might reach your meditative state when you're doing your hobby, whether it's art or playing music or something physical like hiking or Working out or whatever your therapeutic hobby is. That's when your mind becomes clear and that's when you're able to remember oh, this is something that I really need on a regular, because it makes me feel so good.

Speaker 1: 8:30

Or other things that you need come to mind that you don't often get the chance to think about because you're constantly available and you're constantly doing. And then, when you're not doing, you're still available. So the calls come through the distractions, the emails, you still answer them, even though you're off work, you still do the calls, even though it's late at night, it's almost time for bed and you are literally doing all of the stuff until the moment to go to sleep comes. And that's what I'm saying creating some space in your day and in your routine and in your week for some downtime, some me time, hobby time, fun time, relaxation time is just as important and, in my opinion, even more important than the external things that we Chase and go after and work hard for. So this is just my reminder to you, with this busy, busy season, holiday season, that we're in the busiest time of the year. Don't forget to set out time Away from people, away from the phone, away from the email, away from the television, away from social media, to just be with self or with family, but definitely get you some self-time in, get you some relaxation time in whatever that is. This is part of your self-care routine and it's a huge, huge part of your mental health. So I hope that this message reached who it needs.

Speaker 1: 10:05

I hope that those who are listening feel that this message served as a essential reminder To make time for yourself, and it is okay to not be Available. Do not worry about what you may lose by not being available, because all that means is it doesn't belong there in the first place. When it comes to boundaries, I'm a huge advocate, as I am mastering the art of keeping and holding boundaries, and this is part of you setting boundaries and respecting those boundaries for yourself the only way others will respect your boundaries and not take offense Is if you respect your own boundaries. So if people are leaving because you're respecting your boundaries, they never did in the first place and they probably didn't because you did not. But once you get to that point where you are respecting your own boundaries especially the one of time Then you also begin to respect others boundaries. So when other people are not available for you when you need them to be and they tell you that, or they're just unavailable, you won't take offense To it Making that person feel as if they are wrong for not being available to you. So it goes both ways.

Speaker 1: 11:33

What we do for self, we extend to others. When we learn how to take care and love ourselves, we do better in that field with others. It really is a reflection and it really does start within. So take this message. Do with it as you. Please take the parts of it that serve you the most. Discard the rest, whatever it may be. This is just my reminder to you Again. It's okay to not be available and it is okay to set your boundaries around your free time. I hope you guys are enjoying this holiday week. As you prepare for the holidays. Stay safe out there and I will see y'all on the other side.