Self-Care

What does self-care even mean?  It has become one of those terms that gets used and has some misconceptions! 

I have recommended to some of my clients to put reminders in their phone to take a shower or brush their teeth or eat a meal.  Basic self-care that sometimes gets pushed aside when you are in a funk (aka depressed).  Sometimes, self-care is setting boundaries, such as saying no when you need to say no.  Another boundary MIGHT be to limit yourself on social media or the news.

And then there’s self-care where we need to spend some time focused on nurturing ourselves. For whatever reason, we put ourselves at the bottom of the list.  We think we are undeserving of that special moment or service or “goody.”  The truth is, we are freaking awesome!  We have just forgotten (or been lied to by the world)!  We have to take a moment trying to recapture that part of ourselves that remembers the truly awesomeness of who we are.  I KNOW that is a stretch for many of us to even believe it is possible.  Start small and imagine that maybe I am right, even if just for a minute or two.

Now make a list of ideas.  You want small ideas and medium ideas and huge ideas.  You want free ideas and little bits of money ideas and save up for ideas.  And you want ideas that take 5 to 15 minutes and ideas that take a couple hours and ideas that take a whole day and ideas that take a week or two or longer.

It may be that this assignment is  your first idea:  It takes 5 to 15 minutes and is virtually free (the cost of paper and pen if you don’t have any lying around you can grab….or if you want to buy something cute and fun for this project)!

What would feel like a special moment for you?  Here are some ideas to get you started:

•  painting your toenails
• getting a haircut
• buy yourself a treat 
• bubble bath
• buy something that smells good
• get a chiropractic adjustment
• pamper your feet at home
• take a yoga class
• get a massage
• take a day off, just to take a day off
• journal (bonus points for making it a ritual and doing it regularly)
• buy a kind of fruit you’ve never bought or tried
• make a coffee nook in your home to enjoy your morning coffee
• place a warm to hot washcloth on your face and breathe in the steam
• walk barefoot in soft, green grass
• watch some Netflix with a loved one
• buy an outfit that FITS well
• take a weekend off of social media
• go to the movies by yourself
• find something to celebrate that you don’t usually celebrate
• spend some time with an animal
• read something you really enjoy reading

Come back next week and we’ll do something with this list!