Yesterday dinking around in the morning on Facebook I found and read Sweetgeorgia Yarns blog about how her March plans were totally destroyed by illness. More poking around showed that April is National Stress Awareness month and self-care month. So it got me to thinking, what do I do that takes care of me?
Almost fifteen years ago the idea of self-care was a very difficult one for me to learn. As a new mother I was constantly on call to take care of everything so the idea of taking time for me felt selfish, guilty and went against the grain of what I thought I should be doing. Yet over time I have found that the better I take care of me, the more I have within myself to take care of others.
So what does this mean? How much time is involved? What should I do for myself? My own self-care may seem extreme to some of you especially after I looked at my hours chart that I created for Ranger Jen, 28 of the 168 in a week I give to myself, 17%. And no, sleep doesn't count! It's actually more than I thought but I'm all sure that you appreciate me taking showers which is part of that time. What do I do? Lots of things, the main one being exercise. I spend 5 hours a week at the gym sweating. With everything else in my life, I'm constantly in control and running the show. During that time at the gym I give that control over to someone else. He pushes me to do insane things physically that I alone would not think possible. I also read, meditate and work on projects for me. Lately this has been the stitch a day project that Jenny at The Loopy Ewe got me started on. A wonderful yoga instructor in town, Michael Lloyd-Billington has what I like to call the 20 minute rule. Twenty minutes practiced with mindfullness and consistency regardless of what it is can work wonders. His practice is made up of 20 minutes each of meditation, yoga and journaling.
Does this mean that these things are right for you? Only you can answer that question. So I want to know here or on Facebook, what do you do to take care of you every day?
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