Daily writing prompt

How do you practice self-care?

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BACKGROUND

This is a great prompt for me because my entire blog is about self care, mental and physical health.

I came to a point where I was so depressed and had so much self hate and anxiety in my life. And when I began my healing and self-care journey, I was so mindful about it and so intentional about it.

Everything about this society encourages you to not take care of yourself. “Do it on your own”, “Sleep is for the weak”, “Wow she handles all that?”. And maybe it is a millennial thing because I do recognize that society is not like this anymore, but as someone with so many ambitions, I realized that the key to success in life is how you care for yourself.

I have ADHD, I have so many goals. I have fitness goals, health goals, lifestyle goals, I want to make an income off of blogging one day, I will finish my masters, I want to get a yoga instructor license, I want to do so many things, and I refuse to say that I am doing too much.

But what I realized is that I don’t have to do everything right now. I don’t have to go ham right now. And that is what my fitness journey and getting my masters has taught me. It is an every day effort to put in. I work, do my masters, go to workout classes everyday, do my blog everyday, plus my pinterest, (im still working on my instagram when I can). I want to pay off my car and my school by the time I graduate. I can do a little at a time everyday to get my goals done.

So how do I practice self care goals with all my ambition

Realize that retention and creativity comes from rest: First and foremost, my masters is most important to me, and my job is a stressful job with lives on the line and emotions at hand. These people who get services from me, deserve my best self every single day. Is that impossible? Maybe, but nearly everyday is possible when you do take care of yourself. So if work is draining me, I will reduce hours, for my clients, for my retention in school so I can graduate when I graduate and do the best I can. At the end of the day, I love my job, and I want to be good at it and the kids I work with deserve the best.

Creativity also comes from rest as well. When you are burnt out and tired, you need to listen to your body. It is tired, it is not able to give you the creative juices and the mindful thoughts that you usually had. It is literally telling you, REST. And society fails us in telling us rest is for the weak. This is how everyone burns out in their hustle.

Working out and making sure I eat well: I used to hate working out. I wanted to be the laziest person who does the laziest form of workout. But I had so many health issues that stopped me from living such a fulfilled happy life, so I had no choice but to find a way that I can enjoy working out. This has given more energy to me everyday, better sleep, less sleep (because the quality is better) so I have more time to do the things that I want to do. I have more energy, I feel good, sickness is not stopping my goals because I maintain a healthy life style. It does take more out of my day, but it brings so much out of me. It brings resilience, strength, persistence, and self belief for all the things I was able to push through when things were difficult.

Breaks during the day: breaks during the day seem inefficient, but when you truly give yourself breaks consistently throughout the day, not only are you not dreading through the day, your mind is refreshed to keep going, and your breaks are shorter because you are not as burnt out since you are giving yourself these graceful breaks. Scheduling in a break is so important. And lets be honest, our mind is screaming for breaks. Oh, you don’t like that you can’t handle a longer duration of working? You will get there, your breaks will get shorter and less. But you need to do what you need to do in a healthy mindful way to get there.

Always incorporate creativity and inspiration in your everyday: At this point, I know someone is saying “you think I have time for all this?” Unfortunately, the way the world works, does not allow for this for a lot of people, but it is important to be creative enough to try. Find something that inspires you and challenges you in the way that you like to. Try over and over and over again until you find something. The amount of things that I have tried, years and years and YEARS on end to find what makes me tick that fits into my personality, is unfathomable. You can ask my husband. He actually had supported every single one. But I just knew that there is so much out there that I don’t know and when I discover something that fits me, I will love it. But I won’t know it’s existence unless I keep searching. The creativity and inspiration you find will heal you and give you peace on the daily to maintain the health and sanity of your mind.

Conclusion: When you are healed and at your healthiest, you really don’t burn out and you don’t need to many huge breaks and mental health days when you do actually take care of yourself. When I got out of anxiety and depression and followed what made me happy, healthy, and healed, I had so much time in the world. These little things don’t actually take too much time out of your day, and watching tv or scrolling through tiktok for hours to take a break would not be necessary anymore because you already took care of yourself.

Let me know how you take care of yourself ❤

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