What Is Self Care And Why You Need To Take Care Of Yourself First
This is NOT self care:
You’re taking care of your parents, your dad is sick, your mom needs money, you are constantly calling to support them.
You are taking care of your children.
You are taking care of your boss, your employees, your clients.
You are taking care of your spouse.
You are taking care of the house.
The pets.
The laundry even comes first
And NO ONE is taking care of you.
Self care is not selfish.
It’s learning to put YOU first, so that YOU can be there, fully, effectively, for everyone else you are in service to in your life.
No one wants a “you” that shows up half way, stressed out, ineffectively. Your kids don’t want you to yell at them. Your spouse doesn’t want you to be snippy. You definitely want to show up fully prepared and full of energy for your clients, or your job.
Even Jesus, who many people believe was the only “perfect” human, took time to pray, to rest, to meditate, connect to his higher power before performing the most generous and magnificent acts of healing and service known to humanity.
What is Self Care?
Do you feel like you’re always taking care of everyone but yourself?
Are you absolutely exhausted at the end of the day?
Do you find that it’s difficult to get others to do what you need them to do?
Often times people get self-care confused with being selfish.
Selfish is not caring about anyone else. It’s about being self-consumed. Selfish people don’t know anything about service or giving, or even receiving.
Self Care is taking care of yourself so you are able to take care of others fully. Self Care is like filling a cars gas tank.
Self-care is making sure that your tank is full, so you’re the vehicle that can take everyone else where they need to go. When we allow our tank to be full of gas , then others are able to get to their destination as well.
Can you imagine trying to take someone on an hour journey with no gas in the tank?
That’s what it’s like to try to parent, or provide for another person comma when your tank is empty.
You may have experienced this late at night with a temper tantrum two year old who doesn’t want to go to bed on your schedule. If your tank of gas is empty , you’re not acting like the kind of parent you want to be. If your tank of gas is full , you’re an awesome parent. You show up patient, kind, loving and all of the other things you want to be as a parent.
The same is true for work. If your boss (or spouse) asks you to do extra work, and your tank is full , you’re happy to do it. But if your tank is empty, you resent your boss (or spouse).
When our tank is full , we can take others wherever they need to go. We aren’t running on fumes.
So how do you fill your tank?
This has so much to do with boundaries.
As you learn what it takes to fill up your tank, you also learn what depletes you.
Even though we’re taught in many religions that service and giving is one of the highest qualities comma it’s also important to make sure that we’ve taken time out to replenish ourselves.)
It takes 21 days to change a habit. With these fun tools, you’ll be in the habit of self care in no time!