Don't Lose Yourself in the Routine
Quiet the noise long enough to hear yourself.
There is something about this time of year that does something to me.
I love the cooler mornings and evenings when the days are still warm enough to be outside. I love the bonfires, the smell of fall in the air, and watching the garden begin to change. I love nature in every season, but there is something about autumn that makes me slow down and appreciate it a little more. Maybe it is the reminder that everything is changing, and that we don't have to rush through it.
I think that's part of what has me thinking about routines right now.
Life gets busy. Really busy. There are days when it feels like there simply aren't enough hours to do everything that needs to be done. Work, family, responsibilities, errands, messages, and all the little things that somehow find their way onto our lists. And when there isn't enough time for everything, something usually has to give.
For many of us, that something is ourselves.
We tell ourselves we'll make time for ourselves when things settle down, but there is almost always something else waiting. Before long, we can become so good at managing everything around us that we stop noticing what is happening within us.
I've noticed this in my own life, particularly with music.
Music has always been a vulnerable place for me. Singing and playing bring out a softer part of me, and there was a time when that vulnerability hurt. The last few years were physically and emotionally challenging, and I think I needed to step away from some of the things that made me feel particularly exposed.
Music was one of them.
It wasn't that I stopped loving it. I think I simply didn't have the capacity for it. So I stopped playing.
The guitar stayed. The music got quiet.
Lately, though, something has been calling me back. I've found myself wanting to play again, to sing, to sit in the garden with my guitar simply because I want to. And that feels like a bigger deal than it probably sounds.
It feels like I'm making room for a softer part of myself again.
And maybe that's what reflection sometimes gives us.
Maybe reflection isn't always about discovering something new. Sometimes it's about noticing something familiar that you've been missing.
For me, that has been the music—the softer side of myself that didn't disappear; it simply became quieter while I was busy becoming everything else I needed to be.
I've been thinking about the word noise a lot lately, too. I keep hearing people use it to describe the things that occupy so much space in their minds that they can't seem to turn them off. Food noise, work noise, the conversation you keep replaying, the decision you can't stop thinking about, the endless list running through your head.
There can be so much noise that we have a hard time hearing ourselves beneath it.
This is why I think reflection matters.
Not as another thing to accomplish, but as a little space to step out of the noise and notice what is actually happening within us. Reflection can help us recognize what is draining us and what restores us, what no longer fits, what matters, what we need, and how we've changed.
It can give us clarity, but sometimes it gives us something even more important: the chance to listen.
As we move into fall and return to our routines, maybe we don't need to simply return to everything we used to do. Maybe we can create a rhythm that leaves room for who we are now.
Maybe there is something you've been too busy to notice.
Maybe there is something you've been missing.
Maybe there is a quieter part of you that has been waiting to be heard.
For me, that may mean finding my way back to music. I don't know exactly what that will look like yet. I just know that I'm noticing the call this time.
And maybe that's enough.
That's what the Sunday Pause is about for me. Each Sunday, I share a question and reflection as an invitation to step away from the noise for a few minutes and check in with yourself before the week begins. No homework. Nothing to accomplish. Just a little space to notice where you are, what you're carrying, what matters to you, and what you want to be intentional about in the week ahead.
Because getting back to a routine isn't just about getting everything back on track.
It's also about making sure you are still in it.
Don't lose yourself in the routine.
Quiet the noise long enough to hear yourself.
Becoming, always returning,
Carrie
Founder, Total Transformation
NBC-HWC Health Coach
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