Answer this question, what would happen to your household if you broke down? Picture yourself as an essential piece of mechanical equipment or appliance in your house or even your car – it breaks down. What happens in your household – chaos! Why, because Mum, carer, nurturer is not there to make everything alright. So now ask yourself when you feel overwhelmed, anxious, exhausted and overly emotional do you think it would be ok for you to be self-ish? The reason I hyphenate that word is because in this instance, it is not being selfish in the normal context. Self-ish = self-care and that’s the most important and crucial form of self-ishness you can practice. However, self-care seems to be put on the back burner when we are busy, which is detrimental to so many areas of our lives. It is CRUCIAL for our physical, emotional and mental well-being.
There are a number of definitions of Self-Care and my favourites are –
“the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one’s own health”.
“the practice of taking an active role in protecting one’s own well-being and happiness, in particular during periods of stress”.
My own definition of self-care is to take time to practice an act that allows for total and utter inner calm, contentment and joy and allows me to wake up the next morning feeling fantastic with a smile on my face! But please do not associate practicing self-care in the form of drinking a bottle of wine and binge-eating – that most definitely is not self-care in fact that’s numbing (totally different subject and you can read more about it here and results in you waking up the next morning with a slightly thumping headache for putting your body through hell instead of loving it!
Apart from the obvious ways to practice self-care (nice warm bath, long walks, reading books, spa treatments etc.) here are just a very small number of ways that I encourage people to practice self-care – this list is most definitely not exhaustive!
- Meditate or practice deep breathing for 10 minutes: Practice deep yogic breathing if possible as it will totally calm the mind and nerves. Watch this video on Youtube to get started.
- Laugh heartily at least once a day: There’s a reason why we’ve always heard laughter is the best medicine – not only does it make you feel happy, it releases endorphins and provides stress relief that has a positive impact on heart health.
- Learn to say ‘NO’: Yes, I mean it. Not all the time, but being a yes person constantly will take its toll on you as you are giving to everyone else except to you. Judge for yourself when to say yes and when to say no. It really is ok and the world will not end if you say no!
- Choose who you spend time with: This is extremely important, especially when you are feeling stressed or anxious. You know yourself, if you surround yourself with negative people, you will feel it and it will bring you down. The human population is a mix of positive and negative, so you’ll never escape negativity in people but for your own self-care, do not avoid negative people who are your family or friends, just limit your time around them.
- Start a journal: This may sound odd as who has the time to journal right! But it only takes 5 minutes a day to write down how you felt, what triggered certain feelings whether it be stress, anxiety or calm and joy and note how you overcame the negative and what to look out for the next time. Reflection is a very beneficial tool and creates self-awareness.
Lastly, don’t put it off for next weekend or when the weather gets better or another pandemic! Start today and be consistent. Your mind and body will thank you for it as will your family and friends.
Take care lovelies 😊
Main photo by Jackson David on Unsplash
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