Ideas to Treat Yourself To Quality Time Alone

• Go for a 30-minute walk.
• Get a gym membership; work out 3 times per week.
• Plant a butterfly garden in your front yard.
• Go for a swim.
• Take a painting class (or cake decorating, drawing, music, etc.).

Are you tired all the time? Do you go to work every day, then return home and work another 4-6 hours taking care of your family’s needs?

There probably aren’t very many of us out there who really and truly give back to ourselves nearly enough. How often do you schedule time just for you? Probably not that much. We take care of everybody else, but rarely devote any time to doing anything nice for ourselves.

If you’ve been depriving yourself of “you” time, you should change that, starting right now. You might think you can’t squeeze in any more extra time for anything, let alone time to do something just for you. But you’re wrong. You can find time if you want to.

Here are a few ideas on how you can treat yourself to quality time alone:

Read a good book. When was the last time you read a book? Many adults forgo reading a book and instead crash in front of the television in the evening. On average, adults can spend 3-4 hours per night watching T.V. That totals up to 30 hours per week—all wasted on mind-numbing television.

Relax in a hot bubble bath. This is a suggestion you see all the time, but it works like a charm every time. Sometimes you just need to lock yourself away and leave all your troubles behind for a little while. While my husband was in Iraq a few years ago, I’d soak in a hot bubble bath every night and read. I was under a huge amount of stress then, and that nightly bubble bath helped me to unwind and calm down for a little while.

Meditate. Meditation is often underrated and even gets a bad rap sometimes. Contrary to what some people might believe, meditation is not some crazy or weird thing that only Buddhist monks perform. Meditation can be something as simple as turning off all radios, televisions, computers, etc. in your home, and sitting still in the quiet for 15-20 minutes. Meditation is about getting your mind still and quiet.

Listen to music. I have always been a huge music lover. I sang in a church choir for almost a decade. I now sing with our church chorale. Music has a way of mellowing a person. You might be frustrated or upset, but turning on a familiar, favorite tune that you can sing to can wipe all that away in under 3 minutes.