Photo Courtesy: David Spender at Flickr.com

How many hats do you wear in the course of the average day and I’m not talking the sunhat you put on to go out for a walk? Have you ever stopped long enough to look at the different roles you play in life?

Here’s a portion of my average day:

• starts with me feeding the dogs (that’s the kennel maid hat),
• then I get breakfasts started (the chef’s hat),
• wake up the kids (the nanny’s/mother’s hat),
• study for an half hour (the student’s hat),
• co-ordinate our day (the administrator’s hat),
• drive the kids to school (the chauffeur’s hat),
• return home to work (the coach’s hat).

Ok, enough you get the picture.

Our days are so full of different roles, we often forget the one hat we need to wear and be seen in, the This Is Me hat and right now it’s time for me to be “just me”.  Have you ever noticed how you get so caught up in life that the day, the week, the month went by in the blink of an eye?  Life literally passes you by and you never do what you’ve always wanted to do.  Maybe you wanted to be a writer, maybe a pianist, maybe a great tennis player, maybe you just wanted to sit quietly by a river and watch the boats.  How would you feel if you reach 90 years old and you haven’t  done any of the things you really wanted to do, the things you dreamed of, the things you loved?

“Too many questions” I hear you say.  “I just can’t do it all. Something has to give”. What if I threw you a challenge?  Today you will schedule a few moments for yourself, nothing too difficult, how about a 15 minute sit down with a hot cup of tea, put on a timer, put your feet up take a deep breath and soak it all in.  Look around you, what do you see, what do you hear, what can you smell?  Savour the tea think about its taste, is it strong, weak, fruity, bitter?  What does it smell like, look like, what’s reflected in the surface?   Relax your shoulders, your jaw, your forehead and just breathe.

Before you realize the timer will buzz, but what a difference to the way you feel scary isn’t it just being you?  Want to spend more time getting in touch with yourself?  Had you forgotten who you were? I bet you get twice as much done for the rest of the day.  Maybe you’ll even do this again tomorrow.  Hang up your hats and spend some quality time getting to know you all over again.  I think you’ll like who you see.