Your brain has a bouncer

Feel like time is always slipping away? No time to work out, keep the house organized, or simply slow down? No time for you? Familiar, right?

I believe you that you’re very busy. And...

Maybe it’s also true that you have stopped noticing the time that you DO have.

It happens to all of us. It's not your fault.

A really cool function of your beautiful brain is that it filters information so that only some of the tens of thousands of noises, thoughts, and sensations constantly around us make it into your awareness. That’s why you hear your name in a noisy restaurant. If you heard every word spoken from the tables around you, you wouldn’t be able to focus on your conversation with your lunch buddies and your delicious guacamole. Your brain knows your name is important to you and brings that specific word into your awareness.

Each of us have our own little bouncer in our brain that lets some things into our awareness and keeps the rest out. Your bouncer lets in different things than mine. Mine for instance shows me all the adorable pups, the vegan food trucks, and funky shaped trees. Your bouncer shows you things that matter to you.

The thing is, sometimes what our bouncer lets in isn’t what we actually want. For example, if it hears you say how little time you have, how much there is to do, how you can’t possibly find time for you… it will determine that not having time is important to you and it will let in alllll the evidence that those thoughts are true.

Oh you think there is no time? Got it! Let me show you 48 examples every day of how little time you have for you….

Your boss needs you.

The emails keep coming.

You just sat down and your kiddo needs a glass of water.

Traffic is a mess.

Of course the dog is taking forever to pee.

If this sounds familiar… you are not alone! So many of my clients feel like this. Like it is a fact and I used to accept the busyness, rushing, and overwhelm as my norm too.

But here's the very cool thing....

Your brain will happily switch gears and show you that you DO have time, once it knows that creating more time is important to you! Your brain’s bodyguard isn’t tied to any story or idea, it is simply doing what brains do… conserving energy by repeating familiar patterns. It’s on repeat until you interrupt the cycle.

Your brain is the most high powered tool on the planet. Help it help you create more time. How?

One of the easiest ways to start is by searching for the tiniest bit of evidence that your story isn’t completely true. By looking for the little moments when you don’t feel rushed and you have created time for the things that matter to you. No matter how little they are.

30 second tree pose? That counts. You have time to practice yoga.

One lap around the block when you normally would have stayed engrossed in your work? Count it. You’re finding time for movement.

Five minutes of reading before bed? Yup, you do prioritize reading.

Once you start focusing on disproving the, “I am too busy to find any time for me” story, your brain will start filtering into your awareness the moments of time available to you. You’ll start seeing pockets of time that you never used to notice!

I mean seriously, how amazing is that!? (High five to our Reticular Activating Systems - an incredible part of our nervous systems - that helps make this possible!)

I get it; you want more than 30 seconds of yoga. I want that for you too! I'm not suggesting that you lower your standards or settle for less than what you truly want. 

What I am suggesting is considering a new approach.

What if reclaiming your time isn’t solved by putting yourself on an impossibly strict schedule. What if it starts with a mindset shift? Starts with a celebration of little victories—30 seconds of yoga, a brief stroll, or a few minutes with a book—signaling to your brain that creating more time matters?

It's not settling; it's proving you can and do make time. Want to give it a try? Acknowledge your little victories, reveal to yourself and your brain that already do control your own time, and from there, expand upon what is already working!