How is meditation related to time management? They actually have a lot to do with one another. In fact – time-management is arguably one of the more important points when it comes to the integration of Meditation practice into everyday life. So talking about practicing Meditation but neglecting the aspect of time-management leaves the practice incomplete.
In this article I will write specifically about time management in terms of three aspects. That will make it easy to digest and gives you a good approach which is relevant to any meditator. In another article I also talk about the Presence and Goals – it may be of interest as well!
Me-Time: The Foundation of Time Management
This segment is all about how you take care of yourself. It starts with the most fundamental way of nourishing your heart/mind with stillness. From there it moves gradually into your external layers, your emotional life and eventually into your physical health. It’s all about making it important to spend some time for and with yourself every day.
You can set aside specific times each day or create a weekly schedule. Me-time is about learning to take care of your mind and your body. Whether you treat yourself for a healthy lunch, learn cooking, read a book, go exercise or meditate – it’s all a vital part of your daily time management. Be creative and seek out some quiet time for yourself each day because that’s where your power comes from.
The best spent me-time is when you practice Meditation. It’s there when you tap into your deepest source of strength and happiness.
Family-Time: Cultivating Warmth and Human Connection
Nowadays it’s quite common to see entire families sitting together in a restaurant, all glued to their “smart” – phones. The trend is to become increasingly more connected to and distracted by machines. Couples sometimes have a hard time communicating and often choose to withdraw from real interaction by opting for a virtual reality instead.
For family-time to become established, we need to work together as a team and set rules that make it easier to connect, communicate and exchange valuable ideas. An example would be to ban phones from the dining-table or from the bedroom. But this is not only about our unhealthy relationship with machines. It’s about finding out what’s generally in the way of honest human conversation. Knowing our downfalls we can proceed to find a good solution.
Create “mom and dad times” or “family-times” and allow al the members to make choices of what to do with these times in turn. Nurturing love, communication and strengthening the family-bond is really important. Having a strong home that has your back translates into a good life. As you might have guessed – family time is nurtured by me-time. It’s how you spend time with yourself that will determine the quality of your interaction with others of course.
Work-Time: Your Contribution to Society
This section is all about the differences that you make in this world. How do you contribute to society, how do you use your skills? Whether you are running a bakery or work in the office of a large insurance-company – it’s about the way you impact other people’s life. How do you make money – and how do you create benefit and goodness with your skills?
In order to be successful at what we do for a living we need a solid foundation. This foundation comes from well-spent “me-time” and “family-time”. Look therefore first at how you nourish yourself and how your inner power sustains and uplifts family and friends. Then see where your home is out of balance and work together to overcome problems through communication, understanding, forgiveness and kind attention.
If you are carried by the two rooting forces of “me-time” and “family-time”, your work has a real chance of making a powerful and positive impact. When you work – work. Don’t work when sitting on the dinner-table with your family and don’t work when you meditate. The reason why many people are so inefficient at what they do is because they do everything at once. They work when they take a shower and stare into their phones when spending time together with others. They think about lunch when they have breakfast and worry about their future when trying to sleep.
Time-Management: Do what you Do as you Do it
As I said it above: We can’t be efficient when our body is here and our mind there. Nothing we do will have any quality if body and mind are split apart. So we need to train ourselves to offer our full attention to what we do and who we are with. If our attention is jumping around all the time, we will not be able to lead a powerful life and inspire others.
That’s why “me-time” is the most important of all three times. Your life is a reflection of the way your mind works. This might not always appear as an obvious fact of course. It becomes more clear when you see how life unfolds based on your thoughts, feelings, decisions and actions. And your actions always lead to long- and short-term results.
If you speak and act from a wholesome state of mind, happiness and well-being follow for sure. If you speak and act from confusion, anger and greed, everything that follows will match the issuing mindset. Most people try to change their life by groping around in their environment, arranging things, blaming others, trying to get here and there etc. It should be fairly obvious by now that changing the story of your life depends on changing who you are on the inside.
Time management is really important in todays world of always being in hurry. Its especially important when you want to take your time to meditate daily. If you dont plan that into your day, you will maybe miss it. Great post on this topic!
Best Regard from Germany!