Who doesn’t need a little bit more self-care in our lives?
When we start to talk about incorporating more self-care into our lives, we always start by saying or thinking, “I can’t”. We all do this. Even though we know we need to do it, to incorporate it into our lives we hold back and think that we can’t. We need to stop that negative thinking and realize that we can and should.
This is your encouragement to do a bit more self-care.
What is Self-Care?
Self-care is something that goes deeper than just a mani-pedi, baths, spa treatments, etc. It’s much more pervasive.
Self-care is loving yourself enough to love yourself.
But what does that look like?
The reason I make that so broad is because that could mean something different for each of us. What does loving yourself enough look like today? What do you need to do to truly love yourself and give your soul, your body, your emotions, and your heart what it needs?
Take some time to really think about that and then check in with yourself. We need to build a practice of regularly checking in with ourselves because our self-care needs can change over time. They can differ from day to day and season to season.
Here’s an example:
Once upon a time, when everything was slowing down, I was in a space where I felt like I needed to speed up. I had the desire to become more active and do more things. So, for me at that time, self-care was letting myself level up. Self-care was me doing what I needed to do to become more productive, to do more things, and to bring more things into my life. Recently I’ve checked in with myself and realized that I have pushed myself enough. What my body, mind, and soul need now is to slow down. I’m not talking about taking a day to slow down but something more like a month at least. I realized I needed to give myself time to reconnect, to let things heal, and to quiet down a bit so that I can hear the deeper voice within.
My invitation to you is to check in with yourself!
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Self-Care Check-In
To really check in and understand what it is you need right now, ask yourself:
What does self-care look like for you right now?
What does your body need?
What does your mind need?
What does your soul need?
Do you need to slow down and make time and space for yourself?
Does your body need resuscitation?
Does your body need invigorating?
What are the things you need to start doing in my life?
What are the things you need to stop doing in my life?
What do you need to revitalize?
What do you need to be able to come back whole for yourself?
Self-care might mean it’s time for a shift! One of the most powerful things that you can do with self-care is to tap into your unique needs and find what it is you need to resuscitate. For some of us, it’s slowing down. For others, we need to bring that creative element back into our lives.
For me, I’m seeing that I need to slow down. I need to take time every day to come out to my garden and listen to the water run in my fountain and look at the dragonflies buzzing around my flowers. That’s what self-care looks like for me right now. I need to do this so that my mind, body, and soul are ready to do the deep work.
Sometimes we need to let our bodies slow down and heal, let our emotions heal, and let everything just relax. We need to be able to open the spaces, those deeper spiritual spaces where we can hear our higher calling.
But first, we need to get clear on what those specific self-care needs are.
I want to hear when you check-in. Leave a comment and tell me, what is it you’re realizing that you need? There’s nothing better than taking care of yourself and doing things that make you feel great.
To learn more about self-care, check out my article Caring for Your Past, Present and Future Self.
Sending BIG LOVE, until next time!