Self-Care: Do you get enough?
April 15th, 2010 | Posted by in Health CounselingThis afternoon I spent some time at my favorite spot Speeder & Earl’s sipping on coffee and working on some of the fundamentals assignments for my IIN program. This program is about more than just what to eat and how to do it but also about wellness in general.
One of the big topics is around self-care and I feel that this really hits me close to home because I know that there are many times when I see that I am not putting enough into my own self-care and recently I see it happening with my husband. I just started a demanding job which I love but I am now trying to balance working, blogging, school work, home care, time with my husband and self-care. With so many things going on it’s hard to prioritize time for myself. My husband is also in the same position and unfortunately he has not spent enough time on self-care and it is reflecting in his everyday life.
What is self-care and what are the results of not having it?
Self-care is taking the time to do things that nourish your body and mind. It is important that we all take the time to pamper ourselves every day. When we don’t take time for self-care and prioritize our happiness it can result in making mistakes, procrastination and crankiness. As I mentioned above my husband has been working long hours and has not taken for himself and what makes him happy so he has made a few mistakes and gets cranky easily lately. What is important to recognize here is that it is not his job that is the problem because he loves his work it is that he takes on so much work he forgets about himself which is counter productive for his overall wellness.
The first step to self-care is taking note of how you are spending your time and energy. How much of this time are you spending on things for other people that does not benefit your well being? This also brings me to the fact that you can’t help others and do everything for everyone else if you never do anything for yourself. You will be more productive and useful if you take time for yourself. This may mean that you have to learn to say no to people, delegate more and/or cut some activities out completely so that you can have time for yourself.
Tips for Self-Care:
- Make a list each morning or the night before of 10 things that you want to do each day. If there are more than 10 items on your list then you need to prioritize them and any over the 10 you need to delegate, reschedule or remove from your list. One of your 10 items MUST be a self-care activity; this can be as simple as cooking yourself dinner or calling a friend.
- Start small with things like singing in the car, going for a walk or getting more sleep and then move on to bigger things like a biweekly massage, a vacation or attending a weekly yoga class.
- Delegate: sometimes this means paying for services such as laundry or cleaning. Included in this is recognizing that things may not be done to your high standards but that even if they aren’t perfect they are helpful and you can spend time doing things that are more important and you are making time for self-care.
- Let important people in your life know when you are overwhelmed and ask for support. Ask for help and be clear about what it is that you want help with.
- Schedule time for self-care; don’t leave this until after everything else is done then you can do (fill in the blank). Schedule time in your calendar for yourself each day and follow through with it.
- Remember that self-care should be playful- ask yourself what would really be fun for you and make time for that activity.
Q: Do you feel like you make enough time for self-care?
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback.
Love this post! It is so true that we so easily forget to take care of ourselves. Thank you for the great reminder! I just found your blog recently and I love it – by the way.
Thanks!
I love this post Lindsay, because I have just come to realize the importance of self care. It’s HUGE! So so so important. I work 2 extremely demanding jobs, 10-12 hour days, so each day I am running from one client’s home to my daycare job, to another client’s home. I was becoming extremely stressed out and run down because I was having no time to myself, let alone time to manage my relationship and work to the best of my abilities at both my jobs. I decided enough was enough and I was sick of being worn down and miserable. As soon as I have 15 minutes in between jobs, I am sitting by myself, headphones in, book in hand. If I’m driving, I blare fun songs. It is my time to breathe and not talk to anyone and just recuperate and relax as much as possible in the short breaks I have throughout the day. My boyfriend is very aware of the stress level of my jobs and is amazing if I just tell him that I need to have a half hour to myself when I get home. This helps alot because I don’t feel overwhelmed or bombarded to talk to him if I don’t feel like speaking to anyone – often I just feel like winding down alone when I get home from work. I try to make weekends about doing fun and exciting things – we’ll go to the jay’s games, eat at our fave restaurant every saturday, go for walks – fun things which help me manage my own self care and my relationship’s.
You know its so funny that you mention this, lately i havent been making any me time at all. I just work and go to school and go to the gym. I have been trying to work in some more me time. Take some more time off from the gym and sleep a little more, read a fun new book and spend some time with the family instead of having my nose in the books all the time. I need to enjoy myself more, and thanks for reminding me!