Why It Is Important to Just Be

Why It Is Important to Just Be

My personal journey to learning how important it is to ‘just be’ every now and again.

I love organisation and that does not stop at my physical belongings and space. I also like to organise how I evaluate my life at any given time by looking at it in three ways.

How am I thinking?

How am I living?

How am I being?

I then ask myself, am I being intentional and sustainable?

Everything begins with our thinking

Everything begins with our thinking, so being as intentional and sustainable as possible is important because it allows us to weed out ways of thinking that do not help us or our mental health. This process is constantly evolving; and that I believe is growth.

Do the things that alleviate anxiety for you

For me, a lot of my anxiety is relieved by being intentional and sustainable with how I live. This incorporates everything from how I organise my physical belongings and physical space to how I spend my time and whom I spend it with. When I am intentional about these things, I become better able to sustain myself and my mental health because they are all interrelated.

Don’t forget ‘to be’ in your life because that’s different to living

Many of us spend a lot of time both thinking and living, and we forget the value of simply being. If we don’t spend time simply ‘being’ then we don’t get to enjoy the fruits of our labour and more importantly we don’t get time to be in the life we are creating to know if it is still in alignment with what we want (because this constantly changes; and this too is growth).

‘Simply being’ is probably the most productive thing you can do

Often, ‘being’ is confused with doing nothing or being unproductive. Especially in a city, where everything is so fast paced, there is an expectation for high attainment, and everyone seems to be constantly playing catch-up. For this reason, it can be even more important and necessary to pause to check in to see if everything still aligns. It can be scary to pause because what if we don’t like what we realise? But in the long run it would be more detrimental to us to keep going down the wrong path, as ultimately that won’t be sustainable.

What is ‘being’?

‘Being’ is enjoying the parts of our lives that are in between the bits necessary for survival like earning money and other responsibilities. ’Being’ is doing only the things we love to do, the things that we would be doing if we didn’t need to earn money to pay bills, the things that we do simply because they give us joy. It is anything that gets us into a slower state where we are intentionally planning and controlling what is happening rather than reacting to what is out of our control or what is already in motion in our lives. This state of reaction, I feel, especially for me is very easy to fall into most of the time and I really need to give myself gentle reminders to check out of the rat race every week or so, to make sure that what I am doing is in alignment with what I still want. The first step to change is awareness.

What does ‘being’ mean for me?

‘Being’ for me involves spending time in nature, planning time with friends, reading, getting excited about doing something arts and crafts related or simply sitting in a coffeeshop drinking coffee and journaling. After I spend time simply being, I then watch how I feel when I am coming back to my everyday life and know instantly if I am thinking and living in ways that still align with me because if I have fear or anxiety about coming back then I know something needs to change.

Are you in a state of reaction all the time?

When is the last time you took control of your time and did something that gives you joy?

What do you like to do when you are simply being?

This is a gentle reminder to take time…. because it is yours… be still. Give yourself a chance to catch up to see if the ways you are thinking and living are still in alignment to create a life you want to be in.