Buying Time

Have you ever considered buying time, and what the cost would be?

You can buy water, you can buy a handbag, you buy yoga classes; you can literally buy anything you want these days, yet we rarely think about buying time. We rarely give any thought to the cost involved when it comes to something tangible but what about time that can’t really be quantified? There are websites offering numerous articles on how to work out what your time is worth in terms of dollars, what about the time that can’t be calculated in dollars.

Yesterday I bought some time. It wasn’t free, but the cost was small for what I got in return.

And with that time I just lay on my bed, the window was wide open and I just lay there feeling the breeze, listening to the leaves rustling and the occasional bird chirping; I read my book and listened to music. The cost to buy this time? I missed a couple of texts, my washing and cooking had to wait until today as did my yoga class prep. It also cost me a little guilt; guilt that I was lying there doing nothing when I had all this work to do. I mean I had a whole weeks worth of yoga classes to write up as well as catching up on all the housework that gets neglected during the long work week. When you sit back and think about it, most of us have been working for over half of our lives and then coming home to housework and/or family stuff. Seriously, what difference would it make if you took a few hours out of that equation and just gave them to yourself?

There’s always going to be an endless list of chores to complete and work to do. We put off sleeping in, or going for a long walk, or reading by the window, even sitting down to a leisurely breakfast with loved ones—and, even if we do manage time away from the grind, it comes with a looming awareness of the things we should be doing, and so the experience is weighed down by guilt.

Learning to say no and close that particular door for a period of time, on Saturday afternoon, bought oxygen and space to my soul. Today as I do everything I didn’t do yesterday I’m not half as stressed even though I have less time to do it all. I gave myself the gift of time, with no strings attached. This act of kindness towards myself has been paid back to me in spades. And the kicker…I had the best nights sleep I had in a long time. I am, and have always been, a terrible sleeper but I think letting go of the guilt and just enjoying doing nothing without the something at the end helped. (By that I mean that generally everything we do is always for a reason, rarely just because). When you take a break and buy yourself some time it can literally breathe the life back into you.

It doesn’t need to be a lot of time, even five minutes will breathe new life into the body and soul.

I used to think that doing nothing was wasted time but I now use that time to recharge my batteries. Go ahead, buy some time. I don’t think you’ll regret buying the time to do nothing, or something you really love.

Time is finite; the rest of your life ‘won’t last forever.’

Suzi xx