Are you always running around looking after everyone else and making sure that family, friends and colleagues are happy even though you don’t have enough time for yourself? There are many late night calls from family members and you listen to complaints and problems late into the night when you feel tired and you need this precious time to sleep. You work overtime and help colleagues complete a project, the list goes on. It is a constant struggle to find the time for yourself and you continue to ignore your own needs. Does this sound familiar? There is always a pattern and you might feel responsible for other people’s problems as everyone turns to you for help. Most of us struggle with saying ‘no’ as we have been taught to help others before putting ourselves first. Somehow we have been led to believe that self-care is selfish. Most people feel guilty when they need time to relax and recharge their energy. The pattern that is considered ‘normal’ in our society is that we need to work hard to be successful. We will not be successful if our health suffers from exhaustion or illness in this process. Realising this pattern is the first step to taking back control of your life and replenishing your energy. I struggled with this pattern in the past as I was constantly looking after everyone else and along the way I had to learn the power of saying, ‘no’ and making self-care a priority. My passion is helping people but no matter how busy I am, I have learned to make time for myself to recharge my energy. Self-care is an important part of our well-being and lifestyle and it should be a priority to look after the most important person in your life, YOURSELF. I will look at some reasons why we don’t put ourselves first and why we need to make self-care a priority to transform our life.
WHAT IS HOLDING YOU BACK FROM SELF-CARE AND HEALING YOURSELF?
It took me a long time to realise that we cannot serve from an empty vessel, we cannot give what we don’t have. There is a myth in our society that taking time to care for ourselves is considered selfish as our minds have been conditioned to think that we are neglecting others when we take the time to care for ourselves. Our society is obsessed with hard work and we have seen examples of this in our own families, our superhero Mum or Dad is constantly looking after everyone except themselves. However, this self-sacrifice can lead to physical and mental exhaustion and ultimately a breakdown of relationships. Self-care is about claiming back our power, our right to pursue happiness and replenish our mind, body and soul. It is a gift of love and permission to be our true self and in this process we set ourselves free from the social programming and expectations of society. Let go of always trying to please everyone and start to embrace who you are with love and from this place it will be easier to say ‘no’ to people situations that drain your energy. In order to be able to help others, we need to heal ourselves first as we are not able to help anyone if we are exhausted and our energy is depleted. I believe that every person should practice self-care as by loving and healing ourselves first we start transforming the energy of our environment and ultimately the collective healing of the planet. The transformation starts with you and what you decide self-care means to you. There are no set rules for how YOU decide to take care of yourself, but I am sharing what self-care means to me and how it has transformed my life to replenish my energy and maintain balance. I hope this list inspires you to start your own self-care practice.
SELF-CARE PRACTICE FOR TRANSFORMING YOUR LIFE
Self-care is whatever makes you happy, this can change daily as what you need today or tomorrow might be different next week. For example, you might decide to sit quietly and read a book for an hour today and tomorrow you might not have time for reading but you are able to schedule a 10 minute meditation. Next week, you might decide to take a long walk in nature. There are no rules as it is YOUR time and what you feel your body needs. Give yourself the gift of time and don’t ignore your body’s need for rest or wait until you are exhausted to replenish your energy.
Here are some of my simple personal self-care practices:
- Writing affirmations every day
- Meditation every day
- Daily walk or run
- Make time to cook healthy meals and take care of my body
- Write a list of things I’m grateful for every day
- Listen to my body and get enough rest as often as I feel my body needs it
- Letting go of anything that no longer serves me
- Living in love not fear
- Laugh as I know my life is beautiful
Creating self-care in our lives is simple and all it requires is listening to what your body is telling you and make the time to look after yourself. When we spend the time looking after our body, mind and soul we are rewarded by feeling better about ourselves and the situations in life become easier to manage. Positive energy is felt by others in your presence and as more people raise their vibration, this creates a transformation for the collective healing of humanity. By healing and transforming our lives first we are then able to transform the lives of others. Self-care starts with loving and healing ourselves and from this place we are able to transform our world.