Two deck chairs on tropical beach facing sea, Maldives, Indian Ocean, Asia

August is almost upon us, and in my previous life working for a busy radio station it was known as the “silly season”.  Stories that would have never seen the light of day at any other time of the year, suddenly made it into the running order.

Maybe for you though, August is a time to get away somewhere you can unwind, relax…and think.

That time to think is very important.

As you sit in a deck chair, admire a view, or lie on a beach, you may find you now have time to listen to a niggling voice in your head.  It may have been there for a while, but you’ve been ignoring it because of the general pace of life.  The voice might be asking …is this it?  Why am I doing this job? Why am I putting up being treated like this?  What can I do next?

August is a perfect month for considering these questions.  Mulling them over; thinking them through.  As the author Nancy Kline says in her book “Time to Think” “The best conditions for thinking, if you really stop and notice, are not tense. They are gentle. They are quiet. They are unrushed.”

How often do you give yourself the time to be still?  Be peaceful?  Be gentle?  Possibly not very often.  Perhaps you’re rushing around to deliberately avoid those difficult questions?

Why would you do that? Because you’re not being true to yourself, listening to that voice and moving towards making a change.  Just by listening to what you might want is the first step.

So, use August for what it is.  A time to chill out; to relax; A Time to Think.  Maybe by giving yourself that time, you’ll find what it is you are truly looking for.

Have a thoughtful summer.

Helen-Foster