If you're feeling like "there's no time"
My time for writing, responding to emails, and moving forward on projects has been squeezed down to what has felt like nothing.
The culprit?
Summer camp.
For the last six weeks I’ve spent roughly 30 minutes driving my daughter to camp, and then driving another 30 minutes to drop my other daughter off at her daycare and then driving back home.
Twice a day.
You did the math, didn’t you? Well, I can’t tell you how many times I’VE added up the driving hours as EVIDENCE of the lack of time I’ve had to get stuff done.
Did I fully embrace the hours in the car and find ease and acceptance with getting fewer things done each day?
Sorta... no, not really.
Sure, I made the best of the drive-time with some incredible audio books, music, and “car dancing” with my daughter -- we’ve had a lot of fun -- but that didn’t override the strong feeling I had everyday that I WASN’T DOING ENOUGH.
That FEELING was the bump in the “ease road.” It wasn’t what I was DOING, or in this case NOT doing that created the bump.
It was the FEELING of “not enough” and the “time is short” story I was telling myself that created stress and an unconscious desire to hustle.
Truth is: I didn’t have a time shortage. I still don’t.
I had a self-compassion shortage.
I had a feeling-into-what-I-want-like-it’s-already-done shortage.
I had a being in each present moment shortage.
I just couldn’t see it because the “time shortage” story was soooo convincing! I had the hours, the miles driven, and empty gas tanks to PROVE my story of time shortage.
This also made it hard for me to see how the summer schedule was serving me. This schedule helped me have a deeper understanding of this:
There is no time shortage. The FEELING and ENERGY behind any action is more important than the time given. When you feel empowered, abundant, and expansive then you’re influencing what you’re doing with your energy, so it can take very little time and action to create what you want.
Once I remembered this, FELT THIS and mentally dropped my “time shortage” story, time seemed to bend. A project I thought would take me an hour to finish took 15 minutes.
I accessed this feeling and knowing after I gave myself a lot of self-compassion.
So, if you’re feeling time shortage, give yourself some grace.
You might have a self-compassion shortage or a giving-yourself-some-credit shortage, so be kind to yourself and give yourself some credit for doing your best.
Then, tell yourself this:
There is no time shortage. Challenges are happening for me, not to me. I can relax into this. I can find the empowerment of knowing there is no time shortage. I can bend time by feeling empowered, abundant, and expansive.
Do you feel how empowering that is?
That’s when you begin to bend time.
