Self-Care is a Gift

Self-Care: the best gift in 2020. In fact, it's the gift that keeps on giving. I’m not talking about your “Jelly of the month membership” from your boss, 😉 or that great vacuum you got last year. You see, no matter if you’re gifting it to someone else, or someone else is gifting it to you, self-care is a pay-it-forward type of gift.  

Self-care looks different for everyone. Understanding what works for you may be a journey and it might certainly change as often as the weather. The important part is that you find your tools for self-care. The things you can do every day to fill your cup. Once you’ve found those, you’re unstoppable. Yes, self-care often means you have to stop running around like a chicken with its head cut off, but it doesn’t mean that you are less productive.  

Here’s how self-care works in your favor. Think about yourself as your cell phone battery. There is only 100% of you to give. Not 200%. Not 300%. One-hundred-percent. You get this 100% every, 24 hours. Did you know you can actually see how much of your phone battery power is used in which apps? You sure can, it's under settings. Let's say we check that out for you too. Today, 50% of your energy was used at work, 20% to your kids, 10% to your husband, and then 15% into cooking supper and doing the dishes. It’s not even 7 pm and you're down to 5% remaining. Have you ever used your phone at 5% battery? You get annoying reminders that the battery is low. Some apps won’t open because there is not enough power left. It doesn’t take much more and boom, the battery is dead. In your daily life, maybe that 5% goes into a friend. Maybe your partner is looking for more than just 10% of you tonight. Or maybe you have a meeting for girl scouts or the chamber of commerce. And *poof* you’re out of power. This is before you’ve showered or done the laundry, or loved on your pets... Or maybe you go straight to bed, but you don’t sleep well. So, you wake up half-charged and start tomorrow at 45%. Only to run out of battery long before the day is over again. When you have nothing left to give, you function at bare minimum or auto-pilot, if you will. You have no reserve left to do anything more than that.  

So, how do you prevent a dead battery? You charge it frequently! Now there are two types of people in this world: the type that charges their phone every night before bed, no matter how much power it has left; or the type who only charges it as it is dying. You’ll also find that there are people who get more fuel when they are under a half tank, and those that fill after they’re on empty for a couple of days, same concept; different analogy. No matter which kind of person you are, in the case of self-care you need to be a recharge-daily-kind-of-person.  

That way you’re starting your day at 100%. Or maybe you have a strategy to give yourself a little boost as the day goes. Have a stressful morning at work? You include a self-care activity in your lunch break. Homeschooling your kids has your head spinning? You have a 5-minute activity that you can do while everyone is brushing their teeth at night. You have an entire tool-box of strategies that are always available to help you recharge.  

When you participate in self-care often, it becomes the gift that keeps on giving. For as long as you’re taking care of yourself, you are able to give your best to everyone and everything else. You’ll be able to offer more than 10% to your partner or your children. In turn, everyone in your house feels more supported and better cared for. It is a cycle, but it doesn’t have to be a vicious one.  

If you’d like to learn more, join my talk all about self-care. It’s virtual and will be offered at three different times for your convenience. You can learn more about it here. 

You can also purchase gift certificates for sessions at Purely You Healing!