September: Self-Care Awareness Month
Why is it important to practice Self-Care?
Having a self-care routine is just like having a vehicle maintenance routine. You acquaint yourself with the owner's manual, change the oil, inspect the tires, and brakes. You take it to the car wash, and fill up the tank.
These are all things that you should be doing for your own self-care aka maintenance.
Acquaint yourself with your manual. What do you need to keep you running smoothly?
Oil is your engine’s life blood. What is your life blood? Are you checking your levels regularly? Don’t allow an excess of contaminants to crud up your engine!
A lot is riding on your tires and you might know your car’s tire pressure, but do you know yours? We tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves without checking to make sure we’re not riding on a flat. Make sure you’re checking in and filling up!
We all know that sound our brakes make when they’re wearing down, but don’t turn that radio up!!! If our brakes give out we’ll be using other vehicles or walls to stop us.
Don’t you just love that moment you step into a freshly washed, waxed & air freshened car, just like stepping out of the shower or waking up in an organized bedroom. But after a few days don’t start letting the clutter and trash pile up or start neglecting your morning & nighttime skin routines.
We make sure we put in the correct octane to fuel up our car, so let's make sure we’re fueling up our bodies correctly too. If you skipped fueling up your car it wouldn’t run and the same goes for your body.
Brain Dump & Make a Plan!
Get a plain sheet of paper and Brain Dump all of your self-care goals onto it. It doesn’t have to be in any particular order. It doesn’t even have to be spelled correctly. Just get it out of your head and onto the paper.
Now break those goals down into categories. You can use the 7 Pillars of Wellness to help organize your goals.
Now break those categorized goals into SMART goals. Your goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-based.
The last step is to make action items for those SMART Goals. What are the actions you need to start scheduling for yourself that are going to move the needle and get you to your goals?
Please don’t feel like you have to start working on ALL your goals all at once. Choose 1 or 2 goals to focus on first, add those action items to your schedule and start tracking your progress. When you’re ready, start working on your other goals.
All of this planning doesn’t need to be done in one sitting.
Take your time.
Brain Dump.
Walk away.
Come back to it when you’re ready.
The key is to start looking at your BIG self-care goals as smaller, easily accessible action items.
Brain Dumping isn’t a one time event. Make brain dumping part of your self-care routine. It's a great self-care exercise to reduce stress and clear your mind.
If you’re interested in more self-care tips please follow me on Instagram or become a member of my Women’s Wellness group.