Self-WHAT?\u00a0 It\u2019s called self-care.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s a foreign term to some, but if you don\u2019t understand the concept of self-care, you\u2019re in for some trouble!<\/p>\n
I regularly encounter people who don\u2019t have a clue when I ask what they do to take care of themselves.\u00a0 Quite frankly, neither did I many years ago!\u00a0 Most people attempt an answer by talking about their vacations or what is preventing them from going on a vacation right now.<\/p>\n
Self-care is not about vacations, however, we\u2019ve all been on vacations and came back feeling unrefreshed, right?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what I\u2019m really asking . . . How Do You Be Nice To Yourself on a Daily Basis?<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 I have witnessed far too many people come in to my office, stressed to the point of exhaustion, extreme internal chaos, and almost literally at their breaking point.\u00a0 Their needs have gone unmet for far too long and the pendulum needs to swing in the other direction \u2013 and fast!\u00a0 If they don\u2019t get their needs met soon, the pendulum might swing equally as far in the other direction.\u00a0 Operating from these extremes is not healthy and can lead to a trip to the stress center!<\/p>\n My question is why do we have an attitude that says we have to wait until we\u2019re absolutely, positively spent before allowing ourselves self-care?\u00a0 So let\u2019s talk about approaching self-care differently.<\/p>\n Self-care is not a once or twice a year vacation.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a weekend venture with friends or spouse once a quarter.\u00a0 In fact, you don\u2019t even have to leave town in order to get some good self-care!<\/p>\n Self-care is about learning to be kind to yourself \u2013 every day.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 Allow yourself to just sit in the sunshine and breathe for 10 minutes on your lunch break after a hard morning.\u00a0 Delight in the laughter of children on a playground while you are driving home from work.\u00a0 Make yourself your favorite cup of tea.\u00a0 Linger a few extra minutes in the shower just to enjoy the warmth.\u00a0 Soak up the serenity of the nature as you wait for someone.\u00a0 Take a 15 minute power nap.\u00a0 In order to do these things, however, you have to give yourself permission.\u00a0 Sadly, far too many of us have internal messages that simply won\u2019t allow us to go at any speed less than full-tilt!\u00a0 If you want your life to slow down, then you have to learn how to slow down on the inside.<\/p>\n Understand, however, that the things I\u2019m suggesting are impossible if you don\u2019t know your own needs \u2013 and most people don\u2019t!\u00a0 They have a vague idea of what they need, and usually expect their needs to be met by others, but they remain under-met and wanting!\u00a0 There\u2019s only one way to learn what your needs are and to start getting them met.\u00a0 Pay attention to what you are feeling!<\/p>\n If you are feeling irritable, agitated or angry, there\u2019s a need going unmet!\u00a0 Experiment with different things to see if it registers.\u00a0 Keep track of what works and what doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 As you\u00a0 make this part of your daily routine, a way of your life, you will find that you\u2019ll spend less time scraping the bottom of the barrel for energy to make it through your day.\u00a0 Instead, you may find yourself drawing from a replenishable resource and your overall sense of well-being will thank you for it!<\/p>\n Waiting until you have nearly depleted all of your energy is just asking for trouble!\u00a0 Start learning your needs today.\u00a0 Begin filling your needs in a small way right away.\u00a0 An ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Self-WHAT?\u00a0 It\u2019s called self-care.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s a foreign term to some, but if you don\u2019t understand the concept of self-care, you\u2019re in for some trouble! I regularly encounter people who don\u2019t have a clue when I ask what they do to take care of themselves.\u00a0 Quite frankly, neither did I many years ago!\u00a0 Most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marriage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4240,"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3613\/revisions\/4240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healingheartsofindy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}