No matter what you do, if you’re a doctor, tree-farmer, secretary, dog-walker, professional skydiver, stay-at-home mom/dad, or any other profession under the sun, you could probably care for yourself more than you do. We easily get swept up in our busy work schedules and obligations to others, and we forget to make time for ourselves. Finding the time to care for yourself can be really challenging. It can be done, but you have to start slow.
Trying to start an overwhelming amount of self-care habits all at once simply will not work. If you try to do so, you will probably revert to your old self-care ways (or lack thereof) within the week. Instead, the best way to adapt good self–care habits is to try to work one or two into your normal schedule at first, and once those one or two practices feel like a natural part of your routine, try to add one or two more.
The awesome thing about self-care is that it’s doubly empowering. Not only does the outcome of the act feel good (for example, drinking lots of water makes you feel nice and hydrated) taking action to make yourself feel better has a positive effect in itself (hey, I feel good about the fact that I took time to make sure I was hydrated).
Challenge yourself to think of something you could do to take self-care this week. It can be something you want to work on doing consistently, or just something you want to make time for once, but it should make you feel good! Share you ideas if you have them; it always helps to see what others have in mind. Have a great week and take care of yourselves!