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Inspiration for Finding Time for Your Passion

By Katherine Zimmerman

I don’t think finding the time for your passion works. Anymore than I think that finding time for anything works. We all lead extremely busy lives. How do we find more time in a system that provides only 24 hours in a day, and a scant 7 days every week? We still need to work, attend school, eat, sleep, spend time with our family and friends, play and so on. Where in all that do we find a block of time for our passion?

I believe that the answer is to make time. Years ago one of my passions was to ease into my day and nurture myself. However, I couldn’t see where I would ever have the time for that. I worked 8-5 every day, worked out at the gym 3 days a week, had 2 kids and a husband to tend to, a big house to manage. Whew. One day I made a decision to get up 45 minutes early. Aack! That meant I’d be up at 5:45 a.m. five days a week. Initially, I really didn’t think that I could do that. However, I made a deal with myself. I would do it for awhile and if I didn’t like it, I would go back to sleeping till 6:30, drag myself out of bed and jump start my day with caffeine.

My plan was to get up, stretch for 15 minutes, journal for 15 minutes and then spend the last 15 minutes in a state of self hypnosis, programming myself with suggestions for self improvement. I learned that when I started my day this way I felt mentally and physically alert and refreshed by 6:30 when I jumped in the shower. On the days that I really did not want to get up I would remember how wonderful I always felt while in that hypnotic trance and that was enough to get me started.

That daily peaceful time for Me became one of my passions. My husband and the kids were still sleeping and I had quiet time to reflect on my inner life. That time became my rock. I developed a core of stillness that I cultivated every day. During the day when life became stressful I could easily recall how still and quiet I had been that morning and draw strength from it. People have commented over the years that they want the calmness that I exude. I smile when I hear that. If they only knew. I really am quite high strung but when I spend time going inside of myself I can alter that.

It’s been almost 20 years since I implemented my new morning routine. It has changed over the years– somewhere along the way the stretching has disappeared. And now I get up at 6:00 a.m. and walk with my neighbor, trancing when I return. But I continue to journal, to reflect on my life and find my peaceful center. And it remains a passion that rarely changes.

Occasionally, like today, there’s an early morning phone call from a friend in need, interrupting my quiet time. Normally, by mid-afternoon, I would be on edge because I had missed my trance time. Today, however, I took a 30 minute walk with myself later in the day and breathed in the blossoming trees, fresh air and spring sunshine. Nature is another passion and an excellent way to recapture my peaceful center.

So I challenge you– where can you make more time to follow your passion? Will you get up earlier? Or give up an activity that is less important? Making time to follow my passion is one of the many ways that I nurture myself. I deserve that. And so do you.

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