In this article I want you to focus on your worth as a person and not get too caught up in being busy, busy, busy all the time.

While we think we don’t want to be busy we really do. What..huh?! When you’re busy moving a million miles an hour, running from meeting to meeting, you don’t have to think about anything but how busy you are!

This week’s topic: How do you move forward?

Our desire to be perceived as “so busy” gets in the way of us being able to get quiet and reflect upon our lives. There’s an exercise I share with my clients called, “The Alarm Exercise” which is a well-known mindfulness technique. In this exercise, you set your alarm 4x a day and when the alarm goes off you have to stop and check in with yourself.

In theory my clients like this exercise…in practice, they really struggle with it. When you stop everything, put the phone down, turn away from the computer screen and check in to see what you’re thinking, how you’re feeling, what’s going on in your body…it’s scary.

It’s scary because when you’re super busy and running around all the time you don’t have the time or energy to stop and think about your life. You don’t have to think about what’s not working or how you’re not happy in your relationship or that you keep repeating the same patterns over and over again.

Now, this may seem really silly but think about it…when you’ve had 20 minutes to yourself what do you usually do? My guess is you check FB or Instagram or maybe grab a snack or watch a silly video a friend emailed earlier in the day.

We all do it. I’m guilty of this as well. Being mindful of our thoughts and feelings takes work. Yet being able to notice the ongoing dialogue in your head and seeing how those thoughts affect your emotions and in turn affect your behavior is a very powerful skill to learn.

In some of my previous articles, I wanted to you let go of things that weren’t working for you anymore in order to create the space you need to stop…get quiet…and reflect upon your life.

Action Step: Start noticing your thoughts

My action step for you this week is to begin noticing your thoughts. You can set your alarm 3–4x a day if you would like as a reminder or you can find points in your day when you have a few minutes of uninterrupted time — brushing your teeth is always a good one.

I don’t want you to try and change your thoughts or get caught in why you’re thinking these thoughts, I just want you to notice them. Jot down some thoughts that seem to come up for you a lot.

This exercise may seem really silly or pointless but you’ve got to believe me that becoming aware of the inner dialogue that happens in your mind all day every day is the first step to a new kind of freedom.

That’s it for today!!!

Find out whether or not you’re on the right path by taking the following quiz. Click here to find out.