this is life in austin & aspen

Thanks to Crystal Light for sponsoring this post. To learn more about how Crystal Light can flavor your day with 30 refreshing flavors, visit http://www.facebook.com/crystallight.

People always talk about taking time for yourself. It’s super important for personal peace, personal growth, and personal happiness. And stress relief.

I’ve never thought of myself as a stressed person. In college everyone would be cramming for exams in the library, and I’d be there too, only without the sense of urgency they had. I can only do what I can do. In my career prior to EB, I slept easy and worked hard. But the other day I had a revelation: I no longer sleep like a rock.

I used to lay down, immediately fall asleep on my back, and wake up in exactly the same position eight or however many hours later. It was awesome.

Since I started working at EB, however, I’ve taken to tossing and turning, rolling from side to side, and never waking up how I fell asleep, which was inevitably 5-10 minutes after I’d laid down the night before. But life IS stressful, so I’m not exactly complaining. I just use this to illustrate my next point: I used to think I took time for myself, now I schedule it.

I do yoga! I go to the gym! I walk the dog!

Me fitting in yoga even if I have to do it to a podcast!

These are things that I do for myself, but they’re also a regular part of my daily routine. So I’ve worked my time-for-myself into my schedule, and made it non-negotiable. In our hyper-busy, over-stressed environment these days, I think that’s the only way to do it. Time for yourself must be non-negotiable. It’s the only way to manage stress.

My time for myself varies from day to day, week to week. If I’ve been traveling a lot, my me time is often on the couch. If I’ve been home a lot, then maybe it’s an extra yoga class. But as long as I continue to recognize that I need me time, schedule it as a non-negotiable, and get to recharge, I’m happy.

Now, off to watch Gossip Girl. I may not watch it at the same time every week thanks to DVR, but everyone knows not to mess with my GG time. It’s me time.

Remember, visit http://www.facebook.com/crystallight to learn more about how Crystal Light can flavor your day with 30 refreshing flavors. I was selected and paid for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.