What does Self Care mean to you?

Self-Care

Okay now this topic is a biggie, but only because we make it so. Just think about this for a minute. Imagine your self-care practise was as much a routine as brushing your teeth or hair. Imagine if it was an inevitable part of your daily routine...you just do it. Imagine the enormous positive impact on your life if you just got your self-care sorted.

We all know the old cliché that you can’t pour from an empty cup. Much as I’m not a fan of clichés, this one is true, particularly if you are someone who is a ‘giver’ as opposed to a ‘taker’. If this is true for you, you need to be even more vigilant in your self-care. This is something I learnt the hard way, and still have to manage daily.

With the move to a world of more preventative medicine, self-care is gaining more importance as being a fundamental pillar of health. For me, it is a key component of my self-management. I need to be responsible for myself, honouring myself, knowing it is okay to focus on taking care of me. In fact if I don’t, the consequences are immediate. Can you relate? It's interesting how in those times we need it most - eg. in times of busyness or stress - self-care is usually the first thing to go.

Self-care isn’t a one-time fix. It needs constant attention. The best way to do this is to make small changes that then become habits. What one small change do you want to introduce into your daily routine? It might be 5 minutes of daily mindfulness, or 10 minutes of gentle yoga. Just one small change is all it takes to start your self-care revolution. The tricky thing is, sometimes we are so deprived of self-care in so many different areas of our lives, it's overwhelming to know where to begin. Well, fear not! I'm excited to give you my free resource from the Kathie Hill Toolkit this month. I promise - it's a real game-changer. I keep a copy of the Self-Care checklist in the back of my diary so I can check in with it regularly. It is so effective for scanning through and seeing where you need some TLC (or SLC, as I Iike to say Self-Loving-Care). Use it like your saved grocery list, as it includes all the things you could possibly need and often run out of. Simply scan through it and ask yourself, what do I need today, then go out and find a way to get it! Good luck.

Contact me any time.