How do you wind down, recollect your thoughts and find yourself again…..

Today, through some of the blog posts that I have read, I came along one which inspired me to write this post. Thank you Naomi form Seven Cherubs….I thoroughly enjoyed your post.

Why have you inspired me? For me timeout has always been very important. I enjoy socializing and love my family to bits….but I always found that I also enjoyed my “me time” since I was a child.

• As a child I loved reading…and I used to curl up with a book and I could stay up all night until I finished it. I was always a night owl..and I remember  my mum who use to pester me to switch off the lights to go to sleep. I use to find that it helps me wind down and I sleep more easily after. This is a habit that I still seem to have kept…I do not read books as much these days as I have other interests…but I like to read a few pages of a magazine…it seems to work.
  
• Sports for me was and still is another way of having Time Out….I always played some sort of sport…growing up in my younger days, I played netball and basketball, in my later days, I took up Badminton and I enjoyed it thoroughly that I am still going……Sports help me rejuvenate and I feel so much alive after.
  
• When I was raising my kids, I found that somehow, I always ended up going to bed the last one. I always seemed to find something to do and ponder around, but I think I used to enjoy that quite time when everyone was asleep, it used to give me that chance to regroup and have some me time.
  
• Walking for me was always a time where I can be just me, and just walk and I am in my own space. I find that I do a lot of soul searching while I am walking.
  
• Now I have an empty nest…this has been a big adjustment in my life…and it was so very hard in the beginning. So you might say, I have a lot of time to have timeouts. Yes in a way I do…but I enjoy my work so much that sometimes I tend to forget to do that. Sometimes I have to push myself and drive down to our local cafe and sit there and have some time out over a nice cup of coffee. I feel so refreshed every time I  do it.
  
• Being an artist, I find that I get so much out it, my problem is that I am so addicted, that is hard to stop….
  
• Blogging also has become a way of me having a timeout. I feel that I can have a break from my normal routine and just feel free in expressing myself in writing.
  
• Finally I love being next to the beach, or even just looking at the sea  both in winter and summer, growing up I lived on an Island so the sea was not that far anywhere you go…now we are a bit far away from the beach, but if I had the chance I would drive and just walk and walk along the beach……

I wonder what you do to have some timeout?