I'm always so on the go I forget to slow down every now and again. I need that brief time to check in with myself, make sure I'm doing okay too. This is such a foreign concept in today's world with the hustle and bustle of society; the constant demand to multi-task. It's like if you can't perform 12 different tasks to perfection simultaneously well then you just aren't good enough.

Sometimes I welcome complete silence. Silence so still that I can hear my own heart beating.

It is a chance to unwind from the world and to just exist.

Day in and day out, the grind of life becomes so routine and monotonous that we forget to take notice of what is happening around us. We need to be more aware, instead of just going through the motions. Life is not for cruise control. Each and every experience we as individuals encounter shape and form who we turn out to be as people.

It is absolutely crucial to have this time to just be. To quiet your mind and learn how to turn the outside world off.

Life is not a sprint, it's a marathon. Just because there are 24 hours in a day doesn't mean we have to use them all to be productive. We need to eat, sleep, have some downtime-- as foreign as that may sound to most of us.

It is not selfish to have some YOU time. Believe it or not, this is totally healthy and it is encouraged!!!

You need to hit the pause button, turn the radio off while you're driving for a few miles, take the time to listen to the nothingness around you; you will find that silence is the loudest sound of all. Here is when you connect with all of the things you push aside throughout the days and weeks. The constant build up of stress and demands all slowly rising to the surface.

Just because you take a break every once in awhile doesn't mean you're lazy or that you later need to work twice as hard in order to make up for lost time. You need to appreciate the break since it is not often you allow yourself to have it.

Your body needs this time to reset. Without addressing the stressful events of the past week, it builds. Daily stress turns into months and months of tension and that weighs on the brain.

In order to regenerate and have a clear mind, you need to let those things occupy your time and space for a little while. Acknowledge all that you normally don't notice. You have to come to terms with and be perfectly content with all the goes wrong in the world; never neglecting to wander to all of the possibilities that are surely soon to come.

Because, after all, a little R&R has never hurt anyone, right?