Self-care.
What is that exactly? I’ve been asking my patients recently what they believe they do for self-care and most of them answer that they eat a healthy diet and exercise. This is a great start to self-care for health and well-being. But, this isn’t the full picture. In the big scheme of your life and goals, these basics are not going to propel us into the people that we ultimately want to be.
What is self-care?
Self-care contains practices that help us to maintain a healthy, balanced, centered and grounded existence. Because of theses practices, you are able to maintain stability through all of life’s ups and downs. It is a commitment to staying on your path, being influenced by your standards of integrity, and making spaciousness in your life for joy, love, laughter and accomplishing your life purpose. Sounds pretty good! It seems that the older we get the more tools and techniques we need to accomplish this state of peace that I’m speaking of.
What can you do for self-care?
In life, as we get older and have more responsibilities and life demands, we need more time for self-care, not less – which is what we usually end up doing. We need a lot of different kinds of ways to express and release and most importantly, feel joy.
- A researched favorite thing to do is dance! It has been shown that dancing changes neurochemistry and increases important neurotransmitters for joy.
- Music, similarly creates the same results. Playing an instrument and singing are great additions to the musical exploration.
- Nature is one of the best remedies for almost anything! Going for long hikes, walks on the beach and swimming in the ocean all create a mental and physical reset.
- Time with family and friends, sharing stories about life while listening to each other’s journey helps to minimize the gap we can imagine between our experience and others. Most of the time, we see that we are not alone in our experiences. That is an amazing balm for the false sense of separateness that can occur in today’s crazy lifestyle. Cry together. Laugh together. Be together.
- Receive multiple forms of healing modalities: naturopathic medicine, acupuncture, massage, energy work, contrast hydrotherapy, and shamanic healing.
- And, most importantly, enjoy quality alone time. Meditating, praying, journaling and visioning goals for all aspects of life. Read more about meditation and mindfulness: Click here.
What do you do to feel a deep sense of self-care?
What comforts you and helps you to remember why you are here and what your life purpose is? What do you feel you need to do but just keep putting at the bottom of your list because other things are seemingly more important?
Here’s my suggestion to you:
Start a new type of self-care today and see what it opens up to you and how it may bring joy into your heart. Take the time to nourish yourself and watch as it expands out into everything you do. We sometimes believe that we don’t have the time to slow down and do that one thing that brings us joy.
The truth…
We can’t afford to not do it. Those moments are what changes everything from chaotic to peaceful and brings the clarity of our life’s vision into focus. Self-care is a necessity. It is time to put it as a priority, not an option.
Read about the pre-requisite to self-care: Self-love. Click here.
My purpose in life is to help others remove the limitations that are blocking their path to fulfillment of their goals on all levels of engagement with the world. This includes addressing the planes of the spiritual, mental/emotional and physical bodies.