I’ve been trying to reimagine this blog to bring the most value to you, our wonderful readers. In this, I keep coming back to what it takes to curate the life you want. Self-care plays such a big part in that. To build resilience to the boulders that are tossed at all of us in this life and allow us to live our best possible life despite the inevitable ups and downs and the complexities of life.
The answer is SELF-CARE.
Self-care is everything. It’s not a trend or a buzzword. It’s not superficial.
Stay with me for a few minutes while we get into what it is and what falls under self-care. This will be a solid foundation for the series of posts that will follow.
WHAT IS SELF-CARE?
Self-care is anything and everything you do to take care of yourself so that you can stay physically, mentally, and emotionally well.
It can be the smallest moment of slowing down to smell the fresh fall air or something as considerable as spending 10 years intentionally saving for retirement so that you can live your elder years the way you dream them to be.
Self-care is not self-indulgent or selfish. It is taking care of yourself so that you can help and care for others. Filling your cup. It is what is needed to accomplish all that we want or need to accomplish in a day, a month, a year or longer to lead a fulfilling, joyful and service-filled life.
Self-care is intentional. It is purposeful. It doesn’t generally happen without you making it happen for yourself. And that’s the challenging and the beautiful part of it. When you take care of yourself, you are taking control of your life. It’s one and many steps to a well-lived life.
It is not just going for a spa weekend with the girls, then coming back to resume your poor sleep, nutrition, or movement habits. It is not buying a Peloton to have it sit in the corner of your living room, unused. It is so much more. It is so much deeper than mainstream media puts it out to be.
Self-care is accessible to every single person. You don’t need a ton of free time or a great space in your home or a fat wallet. Just breathe. Take a nice, slow long breath into your belly… there you go, self care. Now do it again.
WHAT ARE THE CATEGORIES AND SOME EXAMPLES OF SELF CARE?
I’ve seen as few as 3 categories and upwards of 10. For our purposes, I’d like to focus on physical, psychological/emotional, social, spiritual, financial, practical/environmental, and recreational. Although, this is a mere scratching of the surface of all the great ways to practice self-care, here are a few examples for each category:
- Physical
- Prioritizing sleep
- Eating healthy food
- Regular exercise
- Psychological / Emotional
- Saying no to things that cause stress
- Mindfulness activities
- Practicing self-compassion
- Social
- Setting up a weekly coffee date with a good friend
- Making sure to leave the house every day to engage with others
- Calling your elderly relatives once a month
- Spiritual
- Regular attendance at a religious service
- Frequently doing acts of kindness
- Gratitude journaling
- Financial
- Tracking your spending
- Paying down debt
- Saving for retirement
- Practical / Environmental
- Making your bed every morning
- Clearing and organizing a space in your home
- Setting a calm mood in the evenings
- Recreational (FUN)
- Playing board games
- Watching a comedy on Netflix
- Taking a weekend getaway
WHAT DOES SELF-CARE DO?
Practicing self-care allows us to put ourselves first sometimes, without any guilt. These really aren’t self-indulgent actions. They are internally nourishing. When we feel better, we do better.
Self-care practices allow us to weather the storms of life with much more grace than those that are at the end of their proverbial ropes. Haven’t we all been there? Keep reading for a great, real-life example that I experienced yesterday.
INSPIRATION AND A REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE
If you find yourself needing some inspiration take a look through this great list of 30 Self-Care Quote that Inspire Us from Good Housekeeping.
These past two weeks have been challenging for our family to say the least. I won’t get into the gory details because it’s not actually my own issue that caused the grief but it did disrupt the household because there have been many hours of upset to the point where one person made themself sick more than once. Yesterday became overwhelmingly bad. I dealt with it as well as I could then my self-care muscles kicked in…
- I took a long drive out of town. I love driving and it has always been part of our safety plan. I listened to loud music and sang along… quite badly but it doesn’t matter when you’re alone in your car, does it? Haha.
- I stopped for a big, greasy burger at my favourite fast-food place (yes, this is counterintuitive but I don’t do it often and I had a gift certificate to use up). I eat well generally and mainly cook at home for our family but it’s nice to get out for a treat.
- I took a long walk on a local chip trail. A walk for mental health and physical health. It helped me to further reduce my stress. I took long, deep breaths. I kicked a few leaves and chased some squirrels. Sometimes it’s got to be done.
- I went home and cooked a healthy meal, then had an epson salt bath.
- Finally, I asked my family to leave me be because I needed some space to decompress.
- I got a really good night’s sleep.
See how I was able to incorporate a plethora of different self-care tactics to help me in this circumstance? All very different but leading to the same goal. Today, I feel much better.
“Self-care is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation.”
Audre Lorde
Let’s move together with an intention to better take care of ourselves. Keep following as I delve deeper into this important topic.
Think about one thing that you can do right now to take care of yourself. And do it.
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