Self-care isn’t only bubble baths and manicures (even though these do play a role!)
Self-care is ensuring that your needs are being met. It is about listening to your intuition, respecting, and caring for yourself, being true to who you are, developing wisdom and trust, and doing what is right for you. It is also about practising self-respect, self-kindness and self-awareness, having compassion for yourself at all times and recognising how important you are.
Self-care is:
✨ Saying no to the things you don’t want to do, so that you can protect your time and put it into other resources.
✨ Choosing kindness and compassion and know that you are doing the best that you can, in order to heal, grow, and move forward.
✨ Nourishing yourself with food, rest, and gentle movement so that you have more energy to focus on the things that are most important to you.
✨ Taking time out for yourself every day to prevent burnout, so that you can care for yourself and others in the best way possible.
✨ Honouring all your needs as they arise so you can connect to your body and listen to what it is truly needing.
✨ Being who you want to be, not who you think you should be, so that you can create the life you want to live.
I know when life gets busy, our self-care is one of the first things to go, as we feel it is selfish, or think that there are more important things to focus on.
But I promise you it’s not.
Not prioritising self-care, especially during times of stress may make things worse.
When we are in the throes of deadlines, overworking, and running around like a headless chicken, our body’s biological fight on- or flight survival kicks in. This means the basic functions of our body switch off which makes it hard to hear what our body is truly needing.
The only way to prevent this is to put our self-care first, we need to make looking after ourselves a priority before anything else.
Watch the video for 3 tips on how you can prioritise your self-care!
P.S My book Be You Be Free is out now! It is a book and workbook chock full of activities and tips that covers everything from intuitive eating, diet culture, health at every size, body image, joyful movement, self-care, mindfulness, emotional wellbeing, life purpose, relationships, work-home-life balance and so so much more over a 12 step by step guide to help you find a way of taking care of yourself that works for you.