Set Aside Quiet Time Every Day.

I was reading a book today called, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, by Richard Carlson.  I came across one of many chapters that hit me right away that I want to share with you guys.  The chapter is called "Set aside quiet time, every day".  I knew right after reading the title of the chapter that I needed to share his message in the chapter with more people.  How often are you setting aside time for yourself, even just 5 or 10 minutes?  Today we have so many distractions, Facebook, Instagram, texting, music, and many more things that may distract us from being at peace with the present moment and ourselves for even just a small part of the day.  Richard states in the chapter "Personally, when I set aside quiet time for myself, it makes the rest of my day seem manageable.  When I don't, I really notice the difference."  I have been practicing meditation for almost a year now pretty consistently, I do sometimes miss days, and on the days I do I really notice a difference.
Quiet time is useful on not just days where you are anxious but also on the days where you feel like you are on top of the world.  You can literally take a minute to just look outside and enjoy all the life in front of your eyes and the breathes of fresh air you can take, this will especially help on days where you are feeling down or depressed, but when you do this on a great day, it'll make it even better.  Just today we had the most amazing sky I've seen in a while, the sky has been cool the last couple weeks, but this sight just blew my mind.  Just taking a minute of my time to enjoy the view really helped bring me to the present moment as I stared at the sky with amazement.

My experience with taking quiet time.
Before about halfway through my senior year of high school I used to think of meditation as some silly thing only hippies would do.  I soon came to realize that almost everyone who had their life in line practiced setting time aside for them to relax without distraction, and adopted this technique.  Myself I am able to take a deep breath whenever I need to in any situation if I am feeling tense or stressed, and right away I feel more calm.  Give it a try right now, close your eyes, pause from reading this for about 10-20 seconds, take a deep breathe and inhale in for 3-6 seconds then hold for 4-5 seconds and exhale out for 5-7 seconds. Feel better?  I know after doing this exercise I always feel more calm and in the moment, and the best part it takes less than 30 seconds!
Quiet time is also always used when working out.  If you have ever worked out for any period of time you know that you need your quiet time (rest days) in order for muscle to grow, and not get overworked.  So if you already are working out consistently, you already have experience with making quiet time, all you have to do if you aren't already is set aside quiet time from all distractions and see how much better you feel, and how much better your life gets.