No Time for Yourself? You May Be Living From The Outside-In

We live in a busy world filled with enormous demands for our time and energy.  Whether it be keeping up with a job, juggling the responsibilities of parenting, learning new technology, or simply plugging through our own to-do lists, most people are feeling there are just not enough hours in the day for the necessities. Time for pleasure? Fat chance. Simply stated: Most of us are on overload.

 

There is a simple explanation, yet understanding what it means takes a bit more reflection.  It means we mold our lives to fit within the context of expectations of our outer physical world.  We are reactive to circumstances instead of creating our own realities. In other words, we live from the Outside-In.

 

This is an image of a woman trapped inside a box.

© Gemenacom

 

Some of the signs that you may be playing this out in your own life:

 

  • You spend most of your energy reacting to the demands of others
  • You define yourself by what other people think of you and your possessions
  • You neglect your own needs in order to take care of everyone else’s
  • You make decisions that are not in accord with your own inner values because you worry how others will react
  • You ignore your need to create the time and space to regenerate yourself

Changing the basis of your life from the model of Living From the Outside-In to the healthier foundation of Living From the Inside-Out may be easier than you think.  First and foremost, it requires a major change of perception. When you change how you perceive life, everything around you changes because your external reality is a projection of your own thoughts.

 

How can you transition to living from the Inside-Out?  Begin to prioritize self-respect and spiritual values, rather than recognition, power, and approval from the physical world.  When you begin to live from the Inside-Out, you’ll start to notice:

 

  • You spend your energy to create what you want
  • You recognize yourself as a spiritual being living in a physical world
  • You honor your own needs, which then empowers you to help others
  • You make decisions that are based on your inner values, with less emphasis on how they are received
  • You make self-nurturing and regeneration a priority

Why wait? Follow these four suggestions to begin living from the Inside-Out:

 

1)  Get up about 15 minutes earlier than usual and start your day quietly in ways that make you feel internally motivated, such as meditation, inspirational readings, or just breathing deeply and staring into space.  This is your “me” time. If you’re not a morning person, this can be done before bed.

 

2)  Start listening to your Intuition – When you get those flashes of imagination and gut level feelings, don’t analyze them – just allow them.  These are message from your soul to your mind.

 

3)  Spend time in nature, engaging as many of your senses as possible. This can often help you to achieve inner silence by showing appreciation for the beauty around you.

 

4)  Write down a vision of the things you would love to see in your life.  Do not judge whether it is feasible or possible.  Just allow yourself to dream and imagine.

 

While doing these exercises will not change your life overnight, practicing any one or all of of them will begin to shift your focus. In moving from reaction to action, you may rise above a world filled with stress to finally create the inner space of peace that you truly deserve.

 

Love and Light,

 

Sandra