Balancing Act: Making Time when Life gets Chaotic

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It’s part of modern life, running out of time. Sometimes it seems like we have a million things to do every single day and never enough time to do it. I’ll use myself as an example. I work a “typical” job with a schedule from 8am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday. I get two 15 minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch. I typically don’t count my breaks as freetime because of the nature of my work, and I basically use my breaks to “veg out” and decompress from the daily gunk that I might deal with. I answer a lot of phones, talk to a lot of people, and get hung up on or yelled at when I can’t do something for someone because I’m bound by HIPAA and federal law. My drive to work is about 20 minutes, and my drive home is about 20 minutes. So just for work, there goes more than 9 hours of my 24 hour day. I’m usually in bed by 10pm and up at 6am, so there’s another 8 hours of my day.

With just work and sleep, I’m down 17 hours and 10 minutes. Then I have the other stuff I need to do: get ready for work, pack lunch, wake up Em (my daughter’s nickname), get her ready if she’s not staying home with her dad (which will not be happening starting next week because she starts school), drive to work, do the work, drive home from work, help with dinner, cleanup, get Em ready for bed, do laundry, etc. etc.

It can be hard to stop and take time for yourself, let alone time for your faith. This is why I’m a firm believer in bringing your faith into your everyday life and not just leaving it for ritual and Sabbat. Here are some ways that I’ve found helpful for me to reconnect with the Divine during times of chaos.

  1. Make your morning routine matter. Instead of just rushing through the motions in the morning (or whenever, for that matter), be mindful about what your doing. Use your shower to not only physically cleanse you, but spiritually as well. Water is a powerful element and can do some major energetic work if you let it. Find ways to make your routine more magickal without adding extra time to what you have to do. Let your shower wash away any negativity that you might be holding on to!
  2. Your drive doesn’t have to be boring. Depending on my mood, I basically blast my music in my car (as long as I’m the only one in it) on the way to work. Music is powerful to me, and there are a lot of songs that move me and give me that tingly feeling throughout my body. I have a station on my Pandora that plays a lot of good spiritual and Pagan music, including songs from Kellianna, Damh the Bard, and Erutan. It gives me a brief moment in time to sing along to the songs and give my praise to the Divine through song while doing something I already have to do.
  3. Spruce up your coffee. This one will probably only apply if you drink coffee or tea, because I don’t know what else you could add to other drinks and I’m a huge fan of coffee. Did you know that there are herbs and spices you can add to your coffee/tea for magickal purposes without changing the flavor of your drink too much? My favorite to add is cinnamon. Some of the magickal properties of cinnamon include improved communication, harmony, healing, purification, and wisdom. It’s also one of those spices that just gives you a warm, comfy feeling. Find an herb or spice that you like and experiment with adding it to your drink. Just be sure to do your research on the safety of the herb/spice before you drink it!
  4. Cook with intention. Just like adding herbs and spices to your drinks, you can do the same thing when you cook. Most of us need to cook anyway (and if not, how lucky of you!) and you can make cooking your meals a magickal experience. Whenever I think of kitchen witchcraft, I always think of the old woman hunched over her cauldron, stirring with a big wooden spoon and chanting as she adds ingredients. Today, we have replaced the cooking cauldron with a pot on the stove instead of an open fire, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stand there and stir, adding ingredients while chanting incantations or intentions over your meal.
  5. Meditate or practice mindfulness. This one can be hard, especially if you are extra busy and feel like you have no time. My favorite time to meditate is at night before bed. It doesn’t have to be long, and my meditations average about 10 minutes. It gives the mind, body, and spirit a chance to rest and recuperate after a long day. If you are typically in bed by a certain time, adjust that time by an extra 5 or 10 minutes and simply be still. Do your short meditation and then hop in bed, ready to do it all again the next day.
  6. Go barefoot in the grass. The practice of “earthing” has been studied recently, and implications for magickal and mundane usefulness would be surprising to those who don’t have a Pagan perspective. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, “Multi-disciplinary research has revealed that electrically conductive contact of the human body with the surface of the Earth (grounding or earthing) produces intriguing effects on physiology and health. Such effects relate to inflammation, immune responses, wound healing, and prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases…Grounding reduces pain and alters the numbers of circulating neutrophils and lymphocytes, and also affects various circulating chemical factors related to inflammation” (1). Of course, they study grounding from a scientific perspective on the effects the electrical impulses from the earth have on our physical  bodies, but they don’t study the effects it can have on our spiritual selves. When you ground, or earth, you are literally receiving from the Earth itself, and if that isn’t Pagan I don’t know what else is! Besides the physical effects that earthing can have on the body, it allows you to reconnect with the Divine through the physical plane and center yourself back into a state of spiritual awareness.

We know life can get crazy. We live it every day, and some days might be crazier than others. When we practice bringing our faith and spirituality into our everyday lives, we live it rather than just experience it.

How do you bring magick to your life through seemingly mundane means? Do you have an “rituals” that you practice that keep you centered on your faith throughout your day? Let me know in the comments!


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