Easily Accessible - 7 Journal Prompts on spending Time and Energy

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how easy our lives have become and I’ve been thinking about whether this has added value to our lives or made them even worse. There are pros and cons to everything that’s important and part of our daily lives. And this phenomenon of easy access is no different. It is true that our lives have become a lot more comfortable with everything becoming digitized. But this has also affected our physical and mental well-being.

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With so much free time and energy at hand, we’ve now become used to a lifestyle where stress, burnout, and procrastination are inevitable.

I talk a lot about even routines with my clients and 9 times out of 10 I hear people talk about scrolling Instagram as if it were an important part of our schedule and if that didn’t happen, we’d be losing out on something very valuable.

When I talk to people who are from an older generation, they often tell me how they spend their evenings with a little meditation and they pray before they sleep. I used to find it boring initially but I now see their point. I now see the peace and calmness that closing our eyes brings as opposed to using them for Instagram.

I love Instagram and I’m extremely grateful for the app. I’ve had the opportunity to connect with so many wonderful women there, it has given me an opportunity to showcase my love for content and writing. However, there is always a point of saturation as there should be.

Instagram is one such example where on one hand it’s easily accessible and it helps us connect with people however, on the other hand, it has also become a reason for unnecessary comparison, self-esteem issues, competitiveness, and identity crisis and totally ruined our night routine.

• Can you imagine a time when Instagram wasn’t all that important?

• How did you spend your time?

• What did you do?

In my opinion, the easier our lives have become the more time and energy we have left for us. What makes this healthy and unhealthy is how we choose to spend all that energy and time. From my experience as a therapist and life coach, I’ve noticed that the easier our lives become we start to take it for granted and tend to spend all that saved-up energy and time on unnecessary worry.

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If I’m ordering takeout and not in the mood to cook, I’d rather spend all my saved-up energy and time spent on reading or indulging in a hobby or even finishing up some last-minute work instead of spending time thinking about that message or that call that didn’t come. Or thinking about that argument or analyzing what that text really meant. Honestly, if I were to spend all my free time and energy worrying, I’d rather cook! In that way, I’ll not only prevent unnecessary thinking for a while but also save money and eat a home-cooked meal.

There’s nothing wrong in pondering and worrying however, what concerns me is that we’re taking our resources, time, and energy for granted.

I remember as a kid, I would spend all the extra time playing with my friends after school and doing homework because that was our fun time. Even if we would fight or argue, we wouldn’t spend energy thinking about it because the priority was having fun, and so we’d patch up quickly because we always had a limited amount of time to play and be with our friends. We honestly valued time and energy back in the day.

Of course, I understand times have changed but that’s the whole point. The way we react to this evolution in our daily lives depends on us and depends on our lifestyle. There’s no blame here. It’s just a matter of re-evaluating.

I’m someone who enjoys living a slow life. I like minimalism and I don’t enjoy it when there’s way too much chaos or crowd. Being an introvert helps me because I’m also a homebody and somehow a lot of values that I truly live by come to me easily.

Time is such a beautiful ally. If we befriend it gently, it can bring a lot of changes in our lives. I’ve learned this time and again. The more I pause and try to understand if I’m making use of the time and energy I now have because my life is easier, the more I feel grounded and patient. Even though I allow myself to calm down I see that things often work in my favour because I’m now a lot more balanced and have the ability to prioritize what’s important to me.

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I want to leave you with this thought. Take a moment of your time to simply observe your life and make a list of all that’s making your life easier. Then ask if you’re truly doing justice to all that time and energy. If not, there’s still time, try to now evaluate and see how all that extra time can be spent.

This will help you prioritize better. It’ll prevent you from worrying and thinking unnecessarily that’ll help with your anxiety and nervousness. It might take a little bit of trial and error to get it just right. Be kind to yourself and allow yourself to stay consistent with this practice. Even if you fail or experience setbacks, try to find a backup or something that will motivate and encourage you to keep at it.

When I learned that I was taking all this for granted it took me a while to break the habit and start looking at it from a perspective that was healthy for me and my life. I had to try different approaches and methods to utilize my time and energy in the best way possible.

Even today, there are moments when I slip up and don’t feel like doing anything. I allow myself to indulge a little but then quickly bounce back because I’ve been trying to adapt to a more disciplined lifestyle.

Take a minute to ask yourself this –

• What is all that is easily accessible to me?

• How can I show more appreciation and gratitude for all that’s easily accessible to me?

• Where am I investing all that extra time and energy currently?

• Is that serving me for my highest good?

• How can I invest this time and energy in a healthy way?

• What are the activities/tasks that can replace the ones that aren’t serving me but will make me happy still?

• How can I stay more consistent with it?

Hope this change in perspective helps you not only utilize time and energy but also find a way to feel appreciative of all that makes your life easier.

Thank you for reading!

(This article is also published on my Substack - Click here to read and subscribe )