If you’re anything like me, you probably really enjoy having a bit of time to yourself. Maybe you enjoy curling up with a magazine, or your favourite programme, or perhaps you’ve got a hobby. As for me, when I’ve got some spare time, I love to play the piano, or have a hot bubbly bath with a good book, or I do some exercise. Sometimes I go for a jog, other times I’ll go to the gym, I’ve even just got my bike back from my mum’s place, so I’ve been known to take that for a spin.

Whatever exercise I do, I always feel terrific afterwards. And it seems pretty obvious to me that if you enjoy doing something, you’ll make time to do it.

So why haven’t I exercised in the last month? Because I haven’t had the time. Oh, that’s not quite true. It’s because I haven’t made the time.

Life’s been rather busy and stressful recently. It’s one of those times when a couple of problems come along at once, and suddenly you’ve got more on your plate than you can comfortably handle. My free time is pretty limited anyway, between the school runs, the school holidays and my work, but recently it’s seemed non-existent. Whenever I’ve had a couple of hours to myself, I felt I should use it to do paperwork, make phone-calls; exercise suddenly seemed like an extravagance.

So, the days went past. “I’m sure I’ll find the time to exercise tomorrow.”. The weeks went past “I’ll try and exercise at the weekend”. And finally, a whole month had slipped by, and I hadn’t gone to the gym once.

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In the meantime, my problems hadn’t gone away. They were still there, and I was still dealing with them, but something definitely wasn’t right. I was tired all the time, I wasn’t sleeping very well, and it wasn’t even like I was working with anything approaching efficiency. I’d sit at the computer, full of good intentions about making phonecalls and sending emails; but I’d barely manage to do anything.

This morning, I’d had enough. I had a couple of hours to myself, and I realised that I was aching to move and feel some freedom. So, I pulled on my running shoes and dashed out the house. I won’t pretend it was easy, because it’s always harder when you haven’t exercised for a while. To be honest, I’d intended to go for a jog but at times it was decidedly more like a stagger. But pretty quickly, I realised something; I was really enjoying myself.

For the last month, my brain’s been continually busy. Whirring whirring whirring. So much to think about. But while I was jogging, I realised something; for once, I wasn’t thinking. I was actually just “being”. For a change, instead of worrying about something that had happened in the past, or panicking about what was going to happen in the future, I found myself able to enjoy the present.

I was aware of the wind on my face, the hard gasp of my breathing, the soft scrunch of the leaves beneath my feet. The sheer pleasure of moving. And, yes, my mind did drift back to my problems occasionally, but it wasn’t stressful. I was actually able to mentally step outside my situation; to see it as something temporary. I started breaking down each individual problem into little tasks to be tackled one step at a time.

By the time I got home, red-faced and exhilarated, I felt more alive than I had done in months.

So, I made my phonecalls, sent my emails, did my work. It surprised me to realise that I actually got more done in those few hours than I would have done normally; even though technically I’d had less time because I’d used some of it to exercise.

My problems are obviously still there, but they now seem smaller and more manageable. And I feel better knowing that I took the time to exercise and do something just for me.

So, if you’ve been making excuses about not having the time to exercise, take it from me; there’s never been a better time than right now. If you need to start small, then do so, but make sure you do something. And every day, don’t forget to keep a little time back, just for you, to do something you love. Right, I’m now off to play the piano for 5 minutes.