Own Your Intuition Show

17. Intuitive Time Management: How to NOT feel crunched for time this time of year and beyond

December 13, 2022 Aimee Cartier Season 1 Episode 17
Own Your Intuition Show
17. Intuitive Time Management: How to NOT feel crunched for time this time of year and beyond
Show Notes Transcript

Have you ever heard yourself think, “There isn’t enough time!” Or “This is impossible.  How will I ever fit it all in?”  So have I… On today’s episode I dish about standing in my garden 11 years ago as a new mother– the pep talk, the practice, and the understanding that dawned that made time expand like an accordion. 

Show Notes

Yes, tell me!  How the heck do I tell the difference between the voice of my intuition and my “fear-based” ideas?  Download the free audio here

Empath Core Tools On-Demand Program: www.AimeeCartier.com/ect.

The Architecture of All Abundance by Lenedra Carroll

Here is the link to the full Chapter 19 called, “The Question of Time” from Lenedra Carroll’s book, The Architecture of All Abundance: http://www.soulfulliving.com/question_of_time.htm

Aimée on Instagram

Aimée on Facebook

 For more about Aimée, her work, readings, speaking, or classes visit www.AimeeCartier.com

 

* this is a rough transcript, some stories are missing

Have you ever heard yourself think, “There isn’t enough time!” Or “This is impossible.  How will I ever fit it all in?”  So have I… On today’s episode I dish about standing in my garden 11 years ago as a new mother– the pep talk, the practice, and the understanding that dawned that made time expand like an accordion.  

 MUSIC  **Ayla Nereo, "All of this" song clip**

 ***

Do you crave clarity and insight?  Do you sense that your intuition is trying to tell you important things, but you have a hard time trusting it?  Do you want access to your own internal  wisdom, and to understand how it operates so that you can guide your life in ways that are meaningful and satisfying?  

 Well then, welcome, I’m glad you are here.

 I’m your host, Aimée Cartier.  I’ve been a professional psychic, since around 2007.   I’m the author of the book, “Getting Answers: Using Your Intuition to Discover Your Best Life.”  I’ve been teaching others to understand and use their own intuitive and empathic abilities for more than a decade.  

 Join me each week for true stories and tools that will inspire you to take seriously, your own inner knowing—that internal sense that you have uniquely tailored to YOU and designed to not only set you on the roads that are best for you but also help you avoid the ones that are treacherous. 

 It’s time for you to OWN YOUR INTUITION.

 *** 

Hi, Welcome friends. 

 Today we are talking about time crunches!  No, we’re talking about how to avoid them or the feeling of them and move intuitively with time.  And for me, an obvious place to start on the topic of time crunches is the birth of my first child.

I still remember that time period just after I had my first born, my son.  If you have children you know that the care and maintenance of a baby is a FULL TIME JOB.  I mean like you are needed ALL the time, 24 hours a day.  That’s all you do.  Feed the baby. Change the baby.  Feed yourself so that you can feed the baby. Talk and think about the baby.  Swaddle, snuggle, hold.  Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.  But life also goes on.  There are also other things to do.  For me, like most moms, those months after my son was born were filled with so many demands and a drastic cut (What I mean is a complete raze/ a complete deficit!) in available time.  Or so it felt.  

 It was summer so not only were there the (increased) household obligations—more laundry, cooking etc., but our huge garden was also in full bloom.  There was harvesting and food processing to be done.  And, although I chose to work doing psychic readings very little during that time period I was keen to work more.  My work gives me a sense of satisfaction that fuels me in so many ways.  So I felt a pressure and longing to get back to my work, doing readings, writing etc.  That was before I founded my Intuition University programs.  Having my first child felt like the start of the time squeeze for me!  For me, it was the start of my experience or feeling that “There was never enough time to do what I wanted/needed to do.”  

 Prior to having children—heck prior to even having a partner/my husband, I had always moved very intuitively with time.  Even then I had a very flexible schedule—I quit working 9-5 jobs in the early 2000s.  So to manage myself and my work—whether that was work I was doing for other people, (freelance writing or project managing) or work I was doing for myself— writing my book, or planning and executing workshops on intuition—I moved with FLOW.  I didn’t have a rigid daily schedule—in fact I didn’t have a regular daily schedule at all!  Prior to having children I always felt so constrained by a rigid schedule.  I know it suits some people, but for me, it’s just not how I worked best.  So in order to manage my time I was just always checking in with myself— maybe it sounds funny, or fake, but I would just intuit what time it was to work on something and that is what I would do.  When there was a break in time, or something accomplished I would always just naturally check in with myself and then move with whatever internal urge surfaced.  I had LOADS of freedom in my schedule, by life design!

 All that changed after I gave birth.  I mean for the obvious reasons I just mentioned that there simply wasn’t time to do anything other than care for a baby.

 I remember a woman I know who had a baby around the same time I did.  She also had an older child.  I remember seeing her in the theatre once and she said, “I forgot how much help you need when you have a baby.”  I agreed that caring for the mother alone is a full-time job!  My husband and I had all these lofty dreams of spending the first two weeks (or at least one week) alone with our newborn—really getting to know him, just the three of us.  It took us exactly 1 hour to realize that that was total BS and absolutely not going to work for us.

 I still remember that morning after we got back from the hospital.  Actually it was about 1PM when we woke up—because we were up all night with said lovely newborn.  Immediately upon awaking I was nursing our son and was also like, “I’m STARVING.  And, I need water.  I need something to eat right now.  And I also need a decent hot meal.  Where are the diapers?  Can you hand me the cream I can’t reach it while he’s nursing…”  It went on and on!  After yet another foray out of our bedroom to get what was required at the moment my husband walked back into our bedroom, took one look at me (the person who simultaneously needed about a thousand things AND also needed him in the kitchen cooking me a giant hearty meal—STAT), I can still remember his face.  He said, “We’re in trouble!  We need help!”

 “Agreed!” I said.  “Call my Mom!”  I replied, with an infant at my breast.  “Ask her to come IMMEDIATELY.  Tell her she can’t get here too soon!”

 And bless my mom’s heart that is what she did!  

 So, fast forward a little bit in time—we’ve got a new baby and a full garden and nursing that is happening every hour and a half and blah blah blah—so much.  I remember sitting outside on a hot day looking at our garden.  I had a window of time where my son was asleep—and about a thousand things I wanted to fit into it.  I remember thinking in a sort of panicked way, “There isn’t enough time!  There isn’t enough time!”  And I was talking about whatever thousand things needed to be done around our house but also feeling the ever-present knock or draw- or illusiveness of the things that were also me outside of mothering—my writing, my work. Etc.

 That’s when I sat myself down and had a little pep talk with myself.

 First, I checked in with myself, “Is that true?” I asked myself.  “Is it true that there is no longer enough time for me to do what I need to in this life?” Because that is how it felt.  Not just like a “I don’t have time to fold the clothes.”  But an “if I don’t even have time to fold the clothes (or let’s be honest, I wouldn’t have been pining for that)” process the tomatoes from the garden—how am I ever going to have time for the things that are important to me—the books that I want to write—the things that I want to do with my life!?”

 My question of, “Is this true?”  Would be followed by my thought, “That can’t possibly be true.  It is not true that suddenly now I don’t have enough time or life force to do what I am here to do on earth/ to do what is required or needed of me... It can’t possibly be true that I don’t have enough time to achieve what I desire/need to do because I am a mother… These are the circumstances of my life now.  Of course, there is enough time… It just feels different than it did before.”

 Because I was feeling a shortage of time and not sure how to put it all into the time that was allotted me, I started to use a practice that was inspired by something I had read in a book years before. 

 The book was, “The Architecture of All Abundance,” by Lenedra Carroll.

 In it she tells this brilliant story about her daughter, Jewel discovering that she wanted to be a songwriter.  Jewel was feeling like she had better get a demo ready ASAP – but her mother told her something akin to– since we don’t currently know where, or who to contact, or how to accomplish this easily it must be time for something else.  “So, what time is it now?”  I’m greatly paraphrasing the story here.  But upon asking themselves, “What time is it now?” they felt— the answer was, “It’s time to play music.  If you know this is what you want to do—then that is what to do.”  In the end, by doing just that, Jewel had a record label approach her and invite her to make a demo (which she could use wherever she wanted) at their studio and expense.

 It's a great story.

 So—there I was, the summer of 2011, standing in my backyard, with a sleeping baby in the house and a To Do list of things that needed to be accomplished about a mile long—and realistically an hour or two at tops.  So after giving myself a thorough, sort of shoulder-shake talk of—"It cannot possibly be that you don’t have enough time.  It cannot be that because you are a mother you can no longer accomplish YOUR life goals.

 So—what time is it now, Aimée?  Right now?”

 In essence, it was, by inspiration of Lenedra’s words of “What time is it now?” a return for me of something that I did naturally when I was a single person in the world.  An inward turn in order to discover an outward action.

 So especially during those first few months of my son’s life, whenever I noticed myself feeling this I would give myself a mental check in/pep talk.  I would let go of those thoughts that there wasn’t enough time and the weight of all that I felt pressing on me and instead I would ask myself, “What time is it right now?”  I learned to fit all kinds of things into what had previously felt like a vacuum for anything other than feeding and changing a baby or maybe folding a basket of laundry (ugh).  And I got good at accomplishing big things in tiny increments. 

 I would just go with whatever came up when I asked myself, “What time is it right now?”  Just like I did intuitively for all those years before having children.  Sometimes the answer was, “write an email.” Sometimes the answer was, “prep dinner.”   Sometimes the answer was, “put my clothes away.”   Who knows it was everything.  Doing it in this manner, in this intuitive way with this questioning allowed me to accomplish ALL THE THINGS.  All of the things that were necessary.  It was amazing how time would expand with this question and my leaning into whatever the answer was at that time.

I began to completely let go of trying to figure it all out and just return again and again to just asking myself, “What time is it right now?”  As I am saying it right now it reminds me of a moment of time when I was a senior in college.  And at that same time my mom who had just a little bit left to do her degree when she quit doing it to have myself and my brother.  She at that time when I was a senior in college, she was back in college to finish her degree.  And I remember her calling me once and we were having this conversation and she was – to my memory she was just really overwhelmed with all of these things that we are talking about right now.  [She was saying] “How am I going to get it all in?  I have all of these things going on!?”  And of course she also had a full-time job and was doing that particular tremendously courageous thing of going back to school as an adult: a grown adult with full grown kids and a full time job, and studying also.  I rember this conversation and she was telling me all the stuff, “and oh my god how am I ever going to get it all done!?” etc.  And because I had been in school by that point for four years, this was my senior year of college so I had more extensive experience with it for the last four years.  I remember telling her, “Mom, you can’t think about it.  You can’t think about all the things.  You just have to do what is next on the list.  Essentially this practice, this practice that I developed with the inspiration of Lenedra’s words of asking myself, “What time is it right now?” is akin to that—to letting go of the list in some way.  What happens is that miraculously it all gets accomplished!  It’s astounding and delightful every time.  And it seems impossible when you are staring in the face your thousand things long or mile long or two mile long list of what you should be doing.  And yet it happens.  

 So for me recognizing for me that it wasn’t true that I didn’t have enough time made a huge impact on me. Even that alone. It also gave me a practice and a way to return to moving intuitively with time.  It also help me relax more deeply into the knowing that for instance, even though I wasn’t able to move anything forward in my work and career during those times, that it wasn’t because it wasn’t going to move in the future.  It was just because it wasn’t time for that now.  I had a baby mouth to feed and care for and like Jewel’s demo tape, just because it wasn’t time for career movement/progress now, didn’t mean there wouldn’t be time for that later.  It would simply organically evolve and happen when the time was right for that.  I’m years out from those months of having my first child, my psychic reading practice is in full play again, and I’m years out from starting to teach successful multi- month intuition and empath programs.  I just launched my first on-demand program for empaths.  I have more books in the works, speaking events on the horizon… And it all came about with me moving organically and intuitively with time.  It’s allowed me to mother my children and my projects, and be aware of and continue to meet the needs of my soul. 

 This is Aimée Cartier and today we are talking about a practice that helps time expand.  It helps you get it all done!

 That moment of my first talking to with myself in my summer garden was 11 years ago.  I’ve been using this practice ever since.  In years past I’ve found it especially useful around the holidays which is why I’m offering it to you now.  

 Overtime, I’ve shifted my own life to nullify what I used to feel as the hamster wheel of this time of year.  Like I mentioned in the last episode—this time of year—I think like all animals—I want to rest.  I want to sleep more.  I want to relax by the Christmas lights.

 Every night when I put my children to bed my son asks me, “What are you going to do tonight Mom?” meaning after he and his sister go to bed.  More and more at this time of year I respond.  I’m going to get in bed.  I may read for a bit.”  Or simply, “I’m going to bed.”  Because that is what my body wants.  I can’t stand the false or what feels like misaligned with the season ramping up of events and obligations that this time of year used to present to me.  So I do my Christmas shopping early.  Like this year, I had it all done by December 2nd.  Because I hate feeling like I’ve got to go somewhere or accomplish something on a deadline when all my body really wants to do is relax, knit, and listen to Christmas tunes by the fire.

 Last night we had some friends over playing cards and somehow the subject came up where we were talking about backpacking.  Actually our friends, Henry and Beth, Beth was telling us a story of how her daughter June (who is a beloved of ours as well) has this way that she does backpacking.  So when she is taking a really long backpacking trip she stops every hour.  Even if she is not tired she stops every hour, takes off her backpack, sits down, drinks some water, has some snacks and rests for like 10 minutes before she goes on.  In this way she allows herself to stay fresh.  The backpacking doesn’t go on and on.  There is always a rest and a break.  That reminder me of my step-mom, who always says, “I don’t take naps.  I take breaks.”  And she will.  During the course of her day she will stop what she is doing and get cozy on the couch, put a blanket over her.  She’ll have her phone and do a puzzle or whatever it is that she wants to do.  She has fun games she likes to do on her phone.  So instead of taking a nap or more importantly instead of going and going and going until burnout she stops to take a moment to rest.  In the same way that June does this backpacking.  I think this is good thoughtful practice for this time of year because it can feel like this long haul.  So if you are still in the moment of time in your life where it speeds up this time of year in December and you feel as though you have so many things that are on the list—obviously I recommend pausing and asking, “What time is it right now?”  But I also recommend stopping and taking breaks, like my step-mother does, whose name is Theresa by the way, like June does.

 Okay, so when I think on the nature of time now, it feels like time is shaped like an accordion.  Sometimes it seems like it’s all stacked together: events/obligations/needs/desires.  But when you take space, when you give yourself a breather, when you ask yourself, “What time is it right now?” you discover the pockets in between—that you couldn’t see.  The folds of the accordion that actually do provide the space that YOU need to do whatever it is that you need to do.  

 I’m wishing the recognition and the experience of those folds of time for you this December. I suggest if you get overwhelmed, you ask yourself, like Lenedra and Jewel did all those years ago, and like myself and my Own Your Intuition program students still do: “What time is it right now?”  

 And see what you discover.

 Reach out with your stories.  I’d love to hear.  You can find me on Instagram @aimeecartier or send me a message through my website: www.AimeeCartier.com

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This is Aimée Cartier and you have been listening to the Own Your Intuition show.  

The other day I heard Glennon Doyle on her “We can do hard things” podcast say,  “Give us some stars on your podcast app if you like what you heard—if you didn’t, don’t worry about it!?”  I thought it was so funny—so I’m asking you the same!  So, thank you for being here with me today.  Please share my podcast with your friends and spread the love if you love it!  

 As always, I’ve got some freebies for you.  My free audio entitled, “What is intuition?  How to tell the difference between the voice of your intuition and your "fear-based" ideas.” 

 And I’ve got a new offering for empaths, it’s called, “Empath—How To Tell If What You Feel Belongs To You.”  And of course a new on-demand, not free, but not expensive, Empath Core Tools program.

 All these links and more in today’s show notes.

 See ya soon!