As part of being an exhibitor at an event I was asked to write a piece about self-care. I sit here having a pedicure and I specifically mention what I am doing because I definitely don’t do them as often as I should. Usually like today I am here because I was called out by a friend, who told me it was time to take the nail polish off from a pedicure done months ago! Let’s be clear, I am not saying that self-care revolves around self-pampering though it is a wonderful treat, it just bought my thoughts to the fact that like my toes, I often spend a lot of time doing other things, busy things and less often as I should pausing in between those things.
Does this sound familiar to you? Everyone/thing first, you later? You are not alone, but I think we all need to take a step back, often, and check in with ourselves. How are we feeling? What do we need for ourselves? How can we obtain this? In my opinion, the thing about self-care is that in principal it may seem very simple but in practice it is very hard and it requires consistency.
Self-care for me is going to be different from self-care for you because as implied by the name it has to do with oneself. I would challenge you to try to take moments throughout the day to pause. With the goal being to check in, reset and reevaluate what is needed between the current stop point and the next and then adjust to suit. We all could benefit from check points in our lives, it gives us goals to move towards and markers towards that goal. If we are so busy getting to the end, we sometimes miss the gems and opportunities that could have benefited us towards that goal.
As I said before, self-care is an individual thing, but here are some ways, that I find helpful and that may also resonate with you.
- Take a deep breath every hour, or at time periods that work for you, that’s it, just one full deep breath, rounded, full and true. If you feel extra motivated, try 3 breaths!
- Go for a walk, it could be five minutes or an hour but try to stay in the moment of the walk and release the thoughts of what you did before and what you have to do after, just be present in it!
- Call a friend, have a chat, it always feels good to talk to a friend.
- Be silly, have a dance party, crank the tunes and go with it.
- Go on a date with yourself – Read a book, watch a movie, have a relaxing bath!
- Laugh – when was the last time you had a good belly laugh, find something to get you there and enjoy it!
- Exercise, in whatever form that may take for you.
- Give yourself a time out, when you feel like you are at your edge, if it means excusing yourself to go to another space for a minute, take the time out!
- Take care of your body –fill it with good ingredients, exercise it, breathe, use amazing products on it, of which we have many at Cher-Mere J
- If you can pamper yourself – try a spa service or give yourself one at home!