Take time out

Sometimes it’s important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it’s essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow.

– Douglas Pagels, These Are the Gifts I’d Like to Give to You – 

Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t written a blog post for just over a week now, and that’s because I decided to take a little rest and a little time out from my blog.

I’m not entirely sure why I did this, but for some reason over the last week or so, I haven’t felt inspired to write. Not that I’ve had writers block or anything, but I just haven’t felt like putting fingers to keyboard. And also, not for lack of content or ideas for my posts either.

I almost definitely could have written a tonne of posts about all kinds of things.

However, this post’s message is about the importance of rest. The importance of taking time out, even from the things that you love the most. Because when you come back to them, you’re recharged and ready to go.

I think it’s so easy to fill our lives with habits and rituals, feeling the need to do the same thing every day, because that’s what we’ve always done before.

I started my blog back in the middle of March and I am very proud to say that through a dedicated writing practicing of blogging pretty much every day I have 107 posts under my happy little belt. However, there is also a lot to be said for writing and sharing something when you are inspired.

It’s very important for me to only share a post when I know it will be inspirational, uplifting, positive and that it will help people in some way shape or form. And this is why I have decided to have a little rest. To take some time out from my blog. Have a little holiday from it so to speak.

Hopefully, it will mean that I’ll come back to my blog, renewed, refreshed, with new ideas and thoughts to share with you, my beautiful readers.

So, my thought for you today is this, what do you need to take time out from in your life? Maybe you’ve been overdoing it in a particular area and it’s time to have a little rest. Maybe it’s something that you love, and you’ve had a little too much, and you need to take a step back, so that when you return to it, you appreciate it even more than you did before. Either way, it’s fine to take time out and take a rest from time to time.

Sending you lots of love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

A rest from my blog

Image from – http://faithfromtheedges.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/time-out/

The Power of Pause

“He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”

– Albert Einstein –

Some of you may or may not have noticed that I haven’t blogged for the last 2 days.

I decided to have a rest. Take a time out. And have a pause.

A month or so ago I made a promise and commitment to myself that I would write at least one blog post a day. And I have been true to my word and done that ever since.

I have written 55 blog posts since 31st March, averaging at least one a day. And since I started my blog with my first post ‘Anything could happen’ on 13th March, I have written over 33,638 words, and today will be my 60th post in 73 days. Put into a word document, my posts total 70 pages.

My blog has had 2981 views, has received 77 comments, has 66 beautiful followers with my best performing post having received 170 views (coincidentally this was my first post too). My best performing week welcomed 422 views and 212 visitors, viewing an average of 2 posts per visit.

And in the month of April, I welcomed 561 unique visitors to my blog and received 1250 views.

So, why am I telling you all of this? Because I’m enjoying a good pause and want to communicate the Power of a Good Pause to you as well.

Sometimes I think we get so caught up in the doing, we forget to stop, enjoy the moment and reflect on how we have got to this point. Also, we sometimes beat ourselves up for pausing, because we feel bad that we’re not doing.

So I have decided to pause for the last couple of days. And it has felt really good! And I urge you to have a good pause if you feel like it too.

I also stumbled across a really fantastic speech on The Power of Pause, that  Maria Shriver gave to the Class of 2013 graduating from Annenburg School for Communication and Journalism in Southern California. You can read her address or watch a 20 minute video of it, as I did.

So, if ever you feel like life is moving too fast, you can’t catch your tail or you’re just not sure what to do next. Take a moment to pause. Or better still, take longer than a moment to pause. Take stock. And truly appreciate where you are and how you go there. You might be surprised what happens.

Wishing you lots of love, light and hugs,

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

Maria Shrivers address ‘The Power of Pause’ to the Class of 2013 – Annenburg School for Communication and Journalism – You Tube

Linke In Article – The Power of Pause