How To Let Your Soul Exhale

We’re entering that time of year when hurried and frantic become our defining traits. Despite our best efforts, we inevitably find ourselves running at the red line, ushering kids with one shoe on out the door, stressed and irritable. We unintentionally over-schedule and over-commit our calendars, upping our caffeine intake, hoping it’s enough to get us by.

I find myself in this space nearly every August. As I write these words, I can already feel my shoulders tensing up. But I also have this gnawing conviction that we weren’t created to just get by. And maybe there is a way to enter into this season a little more intentionally, with a few healthier rhythms in tow.  Sure, we’ll still have a fuller calendar to juggle and an earlier alarm clock to tend to, but what would it look like to keep our eyes open to the beauty and goodness swarming all around us? To set the pace at a trot and not an all out sprint, so we are still able to taste and experience this life we’ve been given. What if we fought a little harder to find the holy amidst the hustle? 

I’ve compiled a little list of ways to be more present at a time when that may feel a little bit frivolous, but also possibly so incredibly freeing. 

Try a couple of these things and watch your soul unwind enough to allow an exhale, and know that I’ll be doing the same. 

We can’t always escape the busy, but we can approach it with a bit more gratitude and grace under our belts.

• Take notice when the flowers bloom

• Step outside to watch the sunset at least once a week

• Keep a gratitude journal

• Step away from your phone/social media one day a week 

• Write down prayers for your friends and check in often 

• Sit in the stillness and count the different sounds you hear

• If you have kids, watch them play. Let them set the pace. Don’t constantly rush them onto the next thing. 

• Ask your spouse questions. Silly ones, serious ones, never stop being students of each other. 

• Take regular stock of your emotions. When you’re sad, cry. When you’re happy, dance.

• Memorize your child’s face at this point in time

• Watch the clouds and the starry night sky 

• Sit on the front porch when it rains. Listen to the droplets ping off the roof. 

• Collapse into a hug. Give yourself fully to it. Listen to the sound of your breathing. Feel your hearts beat. 

• Walk through grass barefoot. Notice how it feels against your feet. 

• Pray. Pray when you’re on a walk or a run, when you’re in the car or in the shower. Pray with your kids and with your husband and your friends.