iHour – A Woman’s Sacred Hour!

Unfortunately, many of us think that schedules are boring, monotonous and take away spontaneity and freedom from our lives. However, great mentors and leaders amongst us abide by these structures.

Life of a woman is all about her family! She lives not for herself but for her loved ones, forgetting herself in the process. But as time passes, she losses her identity and what she misses most is her ME time! The time where she can be herself, do whatever she likes and revive herself. But, taking out time from her responsibilities is not easy thing. Instead, she can take out an iHour, an hour for herself alone.

Yes, we are all different, with different wants, challenges and circumstances, but basic human needs are the same and our nervous system and bodies function the same way. Successful people follow rituals. This takes the burden of choice out of the way and makes it easier to achieve excellence.

My Starting iHour

When you make a routine a habit, it becomes automatic. I call my first morning hour, my ‘i’ hour, because this is the hour that is dedicated to me. It is my way of giving myself the oxygen mask first before I face the world.

If, for any unforeseen reason, I don’t get to do anything else this day, I will still feel I had a productive and good day, because if nothing else, I got my iHourin.

Einstein says, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is insanity. So something needs to change in order for you to have different results in your life.

The old adage ‘Early to bed and early to rise…’ Yes, it works! I believe in a minimum of 7 hours of sleep a night, so my wake- up depends on the time I go to bed. It’s during rest and sleep that the right hemisphere of the brain becomes more dominant, which can lead to creative breakthroughs in your wakeful hours.

Here’s how I’ve planned my iHour: 5 Minutes—Install

Drink my tea (What you enjoy, you must do). According to research, people who can take those few minutes every morning to ‘install’ before they actually face whatever it is the day has in store, cope with stress a lot better. I like to give myself something to look forward to every single morning, a small pleasure that I absolutely love.

Even in an emergency situation or when things are really bad, I will still have my cup of tea. When you download new software you often need to install it. To me, sitting down with my cup of tea is my installation time. I find this the best time to read deeper philosophical books which can be harder to digest when the noise of the day kicks in. Decide to carry a general mood of joy and laughter. Read a joke and laugh or at least find something to smile at.

Laughter relieves us of superfluous energy, which, if it remained unused, might become negative, that is, poison. Laughter is the antidote. —George Gurdjieff

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20 Minutes—Treadmill

I often use my Happy Playlist (On my YouTube channel). These 20 minutes of cardio gets my heart pumping, releases all the feel-good chemicals in my brain and brings me clarity.

I have my goals printed out and stuck literally in front of me as I run, so it feels like I am working (running) towards them. I cannot describe the benefit this has had on my fitness, wellness and my work. I exercise and meditate again in the evening. (I will share my evening ritual another time that I call my Happy Hour.)

meditating-pose

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20 Minutes TM — Transcendental Meditation

Did you know that Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Seinfeld and Ellen DeGeneres all practice TM twice a day?

As I mentioned earlier, the benefits you get from being quiet and looking inside are amazing. I had always wanted to meditate for I knew that in it lay the missing plug-in for me. I feel blessed that TM found me as it has indeed changed my life. It is not a religion, it is just a technique. When you give yourself the opportunity to go in, and sit in silence with no agenda, you free your mind up for the rest of the day to be more mindful in its activities.

writing diary

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5 Minutes—Writing in My Journal and Tagging My Loved Ones

TAG stands for Thankfulness, Appreciation &Gratitude, also the title of my first published book.

This is a simple exercise where I write about all the things I am grateful for each day. This comprises people who touch my life and make things joyful and easy for me, things working out beautifully, emails, calls, communication I received, good news, payments, food, anything that I can think of which I feel grateful for.

While I am at it, I take this time to do a brain dump as well. David Allen’s Getting Things Done inspired this. If you don’t write things down, your mind stays cluttered, whereas your mind is meant to engage in creative thoughts, not menial details. You have a journal for that. Once you write down what you desire and then some action steps, you immediately free your mind up to inspiration and new ideas.

Taking a few moments to touch the lives of your children, nieces, nephews, parents, and siblings is crucial and scheduling it will ensure you do it. Visiting their Facebook pages, hitting the ‘Like’ button and commenting on posts too could be valuable. You are showing them that you do care.

young indian woman looking at the laptop screen

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8 Minutes—Teach & Learn

Read or watch something inspiring to set the soundtrack for the rest of the day. This is when I find and watch TED talks and YouTube videos online or read recommended books.

Wait, that’s not it, pick one thing and teach it to someone. Share the insight or the learning with someone in your life who does not have access to the kind of knowledge and resources that you do.

If you don’t allow yourself to learn something every day you will not progress. We all grow older but only some of us choose to progress as we do.

2 Minutes—Tracking

I look at my Habit Forming Table and my goals to track my progress.

So, Now that you know how you can plan your iHour, are you going to work on it and revive yourself and see yourself blossom again?

iHour – My Sacred Hour is an excerpt from the book, “The Mind Spa – Ignite Your Inner Life Coach” by Malti Bhojwani – published by Om Books International – you can order your copy from Amazon.in”

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