Take time for self-care essentials

The cornerstone of wellbeing, for yourself, your family, and your community is self-care. Staying in balance, vibrant, rested, nourished, connected and strong requires daily attending and prioritizing. Self-care means taking care of yourself so that you can be healthy, you can be well, you can do your job, you can help and care for others, and you can do all the things you need to and want to accomplish in a day. 

You are invited today to take a few minutes to reflect on your self-care.

 

• Pay attention to the balance of time alone and with others. Is it optimal for you? If not, challenge yourself to move towards the best rhythm for you. 

• Learn something new. Research shows that trying a novel activity lowers your stress. Getting out of your comfort zone and staying curious can improve your self-confidence, memory, mood, and motivation. It also increases your adaptability and agility to acquire new skills.  

• Be creative. Engaging in creative expression promotes optimism, positive brain changes, trauma processing, immune system functioning, and reduces anxiety and depression. Writing, dancing, painting, drawing, singing, sculpting, woodworking, and quilting are a few examples. What is your favorite creative activity?

• Nurture positive relationships. Healthy relationships are linked to higher self-esteem, greater empathy, combating loneliness, and quicker recovery from illness. People with supportive relationships are more likely to be happier and healthier. 

 

Take some time to consider the conditions, events, and activities that make you feel great! To jump start your musing, consider cooking, reading, biking, gardening, walking outside, volunteering, exercising, giving, laughing, gratitude, listening to music, snuggling with your pet, watching the sunrise or sunset, hugging, smiling, listening to music, discovering, or finishing a project. What makes you feel alive and vibrant? What would your ideal day look like? Your commitment to your own physical, mental, emotional, financial, social, environmental, conversational, and spiritual health IS self-care, make it your top priority!

 

False and self-limiting beliefs can stifle progress toward achieving goals, supporting your wellbeing and preventing you from living your ideal life. An example of a limiting belief is low self-worth. The lower your self-worth the less you believe that you have the right to self-care. You may feel like you are just running to try to reach that coveted status symbol of worth. You can run yourself ragged or work around the clock. You can have trouble saying no. You may find yourself striving to fit in, people pleasing at your expense or not holding to your boundaries. Where are you on the perfectionist scale? Is it hard to stop something mid-project or before it meets your unattainable measure of satisfaction? Maybe you don’t want to start a self-care routine until you (are in a relationship, move, lose weight, are sure we have the job, etc.) With this mindset, there will never be a right time to start your wellbeing routine. There will always be something that prevents you from taking care of yourself.  When you carry beliefs that you are defective, not enough, unworthy, or intrinsically bad it’s difficult for you to believe that you deserve to take care of yourself.

 

How does your self-care impact our community care?

Our community benefits when each individual is well, whole and thriving. Community care is what you put into and what you can receive from the community you have built around yourself and the community you live in. It’s how we share and create resources among one another and create dependable relationships. Here are a few ideas to practice community care:

 

• Cleaning for a friend who is going through a tough time

• Donating to mutual aid efforts

• Getting to know (and helping out) your neighbors.

• Carpooling.

• Asking for help from your support system when you need it (and reciprocating it)

In the words of songwriter Jeremy Messersmith: