Taking Care of Yourself First

Has it been a while since you have been taking care of yourself? Think about it… When was the last time you’ve done something for yourself?

When I talk with people about this, and they feel like it’s almost ‘selfish’ to take care of yourself first, I like to tell them this: ‘When you get into a plane, and they talk about the masks falling out of the ceiling, which one are you supposed to put on first?’ It’s your own first, right? Why? If you put on the one to the person next to you first, you might not make it to put on your own afterwards.

Why Taking Care of Yourself Matters

As people pleasers we often have the tendency to feel like we have to take care of everyone around us first, and simply forget about ourselves, or put ourselves all the way to the end of the list. And that is not healthy.

So today we will talk about taking care of ourselves first 😊. We have to be able to self-care in order to take care of others in a good and healthy way.

The Options of Taking Care of Yourself

The options to take care of yourself are limitless. So here is where the question comes up: Do you know yourself? Do you know the things that you like? Things that you enjoy doing? Things you like to invest your time in?

It was interesting… I had an incident a while back where my best friend called me out on something. My tendency was to spend money on others without a problem, but when it came to me, I would often keep it cheap. We were on a cruise, and there was nice jewelry… and it even was on clearance. I kept looking at it but kept talking myself out of it. So, she said: ‘Get it!’. I gave her every possible excuse why I shouldn’t. And then she said: ‘Treat yourself for once… you deserve it!’. And that switched it all in my brain. Yes, you absolutely deserve to treat yourself every now and then. You are worth it, and so much more than that.

What If Nobody Else is Around?

Throughout your life, you have moments when you might not have anyone around you taking care of you… Take time during those times to truly taking care of yourself. Take time to remind yourself that you deserve that, and so much. Remind yourself that you are very special and valuable. Take that time to take that relaxing bath with that great Epsom salt you like. Feel free to go to that special gym where it makes it fun and relaxing to work out for you.

If there have been shoes you’ve wanted for a really long time, or a restaurant you wanted to try for a while, and haven’t done so yet, because you’ve been looking for excuses for a while… change that mindset and remind yourself that you deserve to treat yourself. Let the ‘taking care of yourself’ start here and now.

It is Not Selfish to do so…

There might have been people in your life that told you that taking care of yourself is selfish. I am here to tell you, that is a lie. The people that told you that were either selfish themselves, tried to manipulate you, or simply did not know any better.

The truth is, self-care is needed in order to be or get healthy. Taking care of yourself gives you the energy needed to accomplish tasks and such that are on your schedule. When you take care of yourself, it helps you to re-charge for other things, such as work, tasks around the house and such. And self-care gives you the energy to do things for others.

Actions to Take & Things to do

So, let’s dig a little deeper into ways of taking care of yourself. As mentioned before, there are hundreds and thousands of ways. I will mention some things on here, but please know, if these are not for you, there are so many more. Don’t limit yourself to the things mentioned on here, but find what it is that works for you… where you feel like you are taking care of yourself.

If you’re a big soda drinker, see if you would like to start replacing one or two of those sodas a day with one or two simple cups of water. And pay attention how that makes you feel with that change.

Perhaps you haven’t been eating the best/healthiest food lately (I am definitely guilty of that one…), maybe you want to start cooking more for yourself again.

If working out is your forte, but you have slacked a little bit with it, put some time to the side for that. Maybe going to the gym is taking too much time for you, try to do something at home. Maybe walk through the neighborhood? Stop by a park on your way home, just to take some simple steps. Maybe take the bike out of the garage, and simply ride through the neighborhood two or three times.

Maybe at the moment you are hardly getting five to six hours of sleep. This might be the time to get more, and better sleep. Find out what it is that’s holding you back from getting that good sleep time, and make some changes there, to get better and longer sleep for your own health.

Mental Self-Care Matters Too

There are so many ways to work on mental self-care also. My therapist had me start a ‘gratitude journal’. Every night before going to bed, she told me to write down three things I am grateful for in that day. It changed the entire mind-set, and now let’s me see so many great things throughout the day I am grateful for. It allows me to see things from a different perspective and embrace simple things that before I just took for granted.

Maybe start the morning with a good devotion?

What is something that inspires you? Is there an author whose books you love to read? Find his newest one you haven’t read yet, or even re-read one. And put 10 minutes to the side to read a couple of pages.

Is there a podcast you like to listen to on a regular basis? Listen to it if that inspires you, or helps you to grow, or encourages you.

Something else that’s good for taking care of yourself, and we talked about over the past couple weeks is setting healthy boundaries.

Don’t forget… Journaling. Maybe to journal is a good self-care strategy for you. And that doesn’t mean you have to write down every single action you took that day. Write things down in a comfortable way for you. If it is simple notes, then just put simple notes.

Starting this Week…

Now that we’ve talked a little about ways to take care of yourself, let’s talk about how we’re going to do that this week, and the weeks ahead of us. This week, put time into your schedule to simply take care of yourself. Write into your agenda – TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF – and stick to it. Use that time simply for that, to just take care of yourself with something you really like to do.

Enjoy that time you are taking for yourself. Don’t feel pressured, or guilty, or anything less than just happy about it. Don’t allow anybody to talk you out of it. If someone comes up with something, simply and respectfully tell them that you already have something on the schedule for that time. If you end up having something else coming up, be fair to yourself and re-schedule that self-care time.

Try different things, and don’t feel like you have to stick with just one or two things. You have the freedom to do whatever you like to do 😊. And don’t make it a chore or a task… have fun with it and enjoy it. When you feel like it becomes a must, change it up a little bit, and take a break from it, until you get to fully enjoy it again.

I am ending this one with saying… Start TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF! Have a phenomenal coming week and enjoy what you will do for yourself 😊.