Self Care in Busy Times
I don’t think I know anyone who isn’t busy. Calendars full of things. Be it appointments they need to go to or to-do items that needs to be tackled, and down time seems few and far between.
I know a few people who do really well with setting work/life boundaries. And I know others who are good at disengaging with the world around them to reconnect with themselves, but I think even those people would like to improve their self care routines.
Why it feels so hard
Of course not everyone is the same, but we all are living under the strong messaging of capitalism to go go go and do do do. This messaging is everywhere, demonstrated in T.V. and movies, on the News, in commercials and talked about just about everywhere.
Like if you don’t answer the question of “How are you?” with “Busy.” than you’re some sort of alien.
But just because it’s everywhere, doesn’t mean it is what’s best for us.
I know for me, I have a hard time not doing something. Add to that that I have opened a business and the list of things needing to be done never ends and many seem to have a looming deadline.
It can become quite overwhelming.
And I know I am not alone with these feelings.
Searching for self care like it’s a Where’s Waldo picture
I know it can feel hard to take the time for self care. It feels like one more thing you have to put on an already crowded calendar. But what if self care wasn’t an hour long massage, or a mediation workshop or even a mani/pedi?
Don’t get me wrong those things can be really nice, but self care is more than those things. It’s more than what we’re advertised is self care.
A look beyond the mainstream
Self care could be taking a bubble bath. Taking one minute, or five, to sit with yourself and clear your mind and breathe. Reading a few pages (or more) of a good book. Your self care could be taking a walk in nature with your dog or listening to your favorite song and singing your heart out or dancing your a$$ off.
Each of these above ideas take a varying amount of time and may not work for you every day. But maybe some of the days?
The little things I do
As I said above, it is hard for me to break away from always doing something. I am writing this on what is supposed to be my day off from work. (but don’t feel bad I like writing on Sunday’s)
I do take time for self care daily. For me self care is the 10 minutes I meditate each morning upon waking. My foam rolling before my workout and my workout itself. That I try my darnedest, even with the hours I work, to get 7+ hours of sleep a night. I’d really love to get 8.
Weekly I try to walk the dog by myself at least once. This doesn’t always happen, but I do enjoy when it does. I try to get into nature at least once every month. This sometimes is hard even with a nature preserve right up the street. I also try to take the cuing from my Apple watch to have a minute with my breath sometime in my day. I usually don’t get to this daily, so I shoot for a few times a week. It always seems to chime at the times when I am training people.
There are of course more things I could do, but that’s what I’m doing now. I am really, really trying to not do work while not at the gym, but that sometimes proves to be very difficult for me. Because most of the work I enjoy doing. Even when it’s tweaking the website.
It’s a work in progress. Like so many things.
I hope that you can take a few nuggets from here and try them for yourself. Even if it’s a calendar reminder at a time when you know you’re not busy and it dings and reminds your to focus on your breath for the next minute. Because if you can, it is such a huge benefit to you.
So much of today’s world is set up to distract us from ourselves, to keep us plodding along on the machine that is capitalism and consumerism-think more than just buying things, but also social media as another example.
So many shiny new things to keep us occupied and not truly connected to who we are. What we really want to be doing or being. What our purpose is.
Often we are taught that taking time for us is a luxury or really not needed. This may take some time digesting and analyzing how you actually feel about self care past the story we’ve all been fed.
My hope is that this post will have sparked a few thoughts and ideas to try and see which one works for you. As with any habit, pick one and try it until it doesn’t require you to think about it anymore and it just happens.
We’d love to hear what you are doing for self care. Share with us. Share with our community. We’d also love to hear if this was helpful or if you have questions or need assistance in creating some ways for self care for yourself.
Be Well, ~Theresa