Welcome to my first blog post I am happy you found your way here. I wanted to share a little bit about what intentional living means to me. It has taken me many years to actually live the intentional life I wanted. You see as a self-proclaimed people pleasing person I was always putting everyone else's needs before myself. I know you have already heard it before, we must put ourselves first. We must take care of ourselves. And although, I believed these words I wasn't always doing that. I was running around trying to be the best Wife, Mother, Daughter, Manager, Friend, Advocate, etc. I was signing up for every event and going to multiple parties in one day. I believed I was living this amazing life because I had so many invitations and friends. And I was offended when people made comments about my busy lifestyle. Truth, be told it still kinda makes my skin crawl when someone says something about my busy lifestyle. I have enormous amounts of energy and I am able to accomplish a lot. I am a goal setter and I love people. I mean I really love people and their stories. But, what I was finding is all this busyness was leaving me depleted and not really feeling deep connections with all the people I was spending my time with. I was always rushing on to the next thing, not allowing space to be fully engaged. I do believe I thought I was spending quality time with people, but in reality my mind was rushing to the next charity event, party, work project, etc.
I recall feeling hurt when I would attend every event, party, and invitation from a friend, but they could so easily skip invitations of mine. Seriously, how dare they? I mean look at all I have done for you. And it would literally crush me at times. But, they were doing what was best for them. And not every person can attend every invitation.
I remember when I shifted my yearly new resolutions to intentions how my life shifted. I began to look at how I wanted to feel. Did I want joy? Peace? Restfulness? As a goal driven person, I will continue to set and achieve manageable smart goals. But, how I want to feel is intentional. I now begin each day with mindful moments of stillness. I take some long slow deep breaths feeling into the intention. I choose daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly intentions. And everything comes back to those intentions. So, if the invitation doesn't align with those intentions then I decline it, without guilt. That has been the key component, not allowing guilt to sink in. Each day is such a gift, and I want to make sure I am living it with full intention.
Comments