I truly believe that if you’re going to take good care of people, you NEED to take good care of you. When you receive a massage at Touch Therapy you can be certain that while I’m taking good care of you, I’m also doing my very best to take good care of me.
Self-care wasn’t something that came naturally to me, it hadn’t been well demonstrated in my childhood but when I became a mother the second time round I started to realise I needed some time to be still, silent, to take time out for myself and I needed to let others look after me a little.
Through much therapy and opening my spirit to things that nourished me I started to develop a go to list of things I could do to take good care. That way when I began to feel angry, resentful, over tired or super stressed I knew it was time for me. Eventually I scheduled these things in for myself as a preventative measure to get ahead of the game. It works! At first, it was such an effort to take time for myself and now it’s just part of every day life. For me, self-care started with a long hot bath and then it grew into regular massages, a yoga practice, the beach on Sundays like it was church.
I still remember when I first started to take holidays without my children or husband (at the time) and I also remember the backlash and judgement from others. Women who didn’t yet know how to take good care of themselves. It’s a trending conversation now, a little more acceptable. I now know so many younger women taking very good care and I LOVE it! After more than 10 years of self-care practice you could probably say I’m a self-appointed self-care advocate! It’s not about being glamorous or self-indulgent although it might be, it’s about considering what soothes the essence of you. I look it at as good parenting to myself. What does that little girl/boy need to get a good sleep, feel loved, nourished and so on – then give it to yourself.
At the moment, something that is helping me is having something to look forward to – in the form of a nice, warm, childfree tropical holiday! The count down for rest and relaxation is on! One more sleep! However, I have learnt that if you take very good care, you’ll rarely need to “escape” and that is what I call living a life that is at ease with who you are. In the flow. Below is a list of my top favourite 20 self-care habits:
1. Yoga
2. Dark Chocolate, a cup of tea and some silence
3. Hot Bath
4. Massage for me!
5. Tea and rich conversations with someone that gets me
6. Sunshine
7. Time at the beach (or in any kind of nature)
8. Holidays
9. A chill day where I allow myself to be “ lazy”
10. Therapy – a quest to better understand myself
11. Early nights
12. A clean, tasty vege meal
13. Listening to music (loud) and getting the house organised
14. Having something to look forward to \
15. Making sweet sweet love
16. Reading / Watching something that makes you laugh out loud
17. Letting someone cook you dinner
18. Yoga Nidra Meditation (love the ones on 'insight timer')
19. Pedicure
20. Saying ‘no’ and staying in
What do you think? Would doing any of those things make you feel better about you, the week ahead or life in general? I’d love to hear some of your favourite self-care habits! I’m always looking for new ways to take good care and find some
Peace xx