Even as someone who’s been living intentionally and practicing this lifestyle for almost four years now, I still find it challenging to fit it into my day-to-day. In the early years, it was easier because all I was doing was focusing on intentional living. I had all the time in the world to focus on taking control of all thing wellness, mindset, spirituality. It was because of those extraordinary changes that I was able to reach this level of success and intentionality today. Now, my life is sitting at such a stark contrast to where it once was, which is incredible. But as I’ve grown more into adulthood, into my own, and into my success—like most, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to fit intentionality and wellness into a busy schedule. But it’s not impossible; all it requires is a bit of navigation and a lot of determination.
When people hear me talk about living intentionally, there can be mixed opinions on the topic. Some people think it’s just about habits and routines, some people think it relates to spirituality, while others see it as unattainable. But Intentional Living is truly a holistic lifestyle. When you choose to live intentionally, it’s about every single aspect of your life coming together under one intentional mission. Your life is about you; it’s about your journey, your wins, losses, successes, failures. Intentional living is about shifting, growing close to your emotions, and overcoming life’s hardest challenges. And this lifestyle teaches us that when circumstances change, we have to shift with them.
How to Fit Intentionality & Wellness Into Your Busy Life
Being able to shift with the ebb and flow of our lives can feel difficult. And when things get really busy, it can seem even more impossible to be intentional and live a wellness driven lifestyle. Whether its’s your job, business, relationships, kids, or whatever it may be that’s consuming your time, I believe it’s never impossible to live intentionally. The beautiful thing about ‘living intentionally’ is that is does (and should) mean something different to everyone. My intentional living journey should look different from yours. However, there are certainly pieces of intentionality that are applicable to everyone. For example, the habits, routines, mindset, healing techniques, goal setting, and more just to name a few. So the question is, how do we uphold these intentional habits and routines when our schedules get so busy?
Identifying how your habits need to shift
When we go through major and even minor shifts in our lives— particularly in our identity— we get thrown out of normal routines. Like starting a job or becoming a parent, these major shifts contribute so much to how we budget our time and emotions. And when these shifts happen, we can’t expect to show up to our intentional life the same way we did a few months ago. This isn’t to say that we should show up with a different level of enthusiasm or determination. It simply means that we need to take a step back, reevaluate, and make adjustments. First, we need to figure out what is and isn’t working. You can do something as simple as making a list of all your current habits and routines and seeing what currently resonates with your life now.
Something so many of my clients, friends, and random people I have these conversations with say they struggle with is fitting positive habits and routines into their schedule. There are so many ways we could be feeling resistance towards these changes. But the solution can be found through a few simple questions.
- Create a list of your current habits and routines. Then, make two columns of those habits based on what is and isn’t working.
- Then, on the ‘isn’t working’ side, ask yourself, is this a habit I actually want to be doing? Or, is it something I think I’m supposed to be doing?
- If yes, in what form were you completing the habit? And how could you change your approach to make it more applicable to your life now?
- Lastly, you need to figure out how this new or adjusted habit will fit into your life currently.
How to fit your *new* wellness routine into your busy schedule
Once you’ve got your list of new habits and routines, it’s time to adjust how you approach them. When you’ve got a busy schedule, the key to incorporating wellness is leveraging your determination into motivation. When things like parenthood, your career, school, etc., are keeping you busy, you have to consistently remind yourself why you incorporated these habits in the first place. If your goal is to live intentionally, you have to keep that the central priority. Say you set your alarm for 6 AM to complete your morning routine. If that alarm goes off and you’re choosing extra sleep over your routine, you’re going to regret it later in the day. Now of course there are exceptions to this. We shouldn’t hold ourselves to a standard of ‘everyday.’
We need and deserve breaks. And if we don’t allow ourselves to take them, then our habits become punishments. This is how we get to a place where forcing ourselves turns into resenting the habits, and therefore we leave them behind altogether. This is why it’s so important to take the time and see how much you can actually fit into your day and where so that you feel intentional about your time. It’s ok if you have to leave a few habits behind momentarily. The point in this shift is to maintain your intentional life and shift as needed. Living Intentionally isn’t a linear lifestyle. Intentionality ebbs and flows as our lives change. It’s okay to give yourself grace and make changes along the way; it’s a beautiful part of the journey, watching ourselves grow. And fitting wellness into your busy schedule should always remain a part of that journey.
