I’ve noticed that some folks find it way harder to care for themselves as well as they care for others. Maybe you’re one of them!
We’re all very familiar with the old flight safety rule that turned into a common adage: Put on your own oxygen mask first.
Simply put, we can’t care for others near as well if we don’t care for ourselves first.
It feels selfish on the surface, but it makes logical sense. In practice, however, the problem seems to be who has the time for real self-care?
Keeping up with everything is hard enough without trying to rearrange our schedules to better care for ourselves. There are a few things we can do that can take just minutes a week, rather than hours, and have very decent self-care payoffs. Try these!
When you first wake up, before getting out of bed or looking at the phone, take a few slow, deep breathes and say, out loud, one thing you are truly grateful for. This will help set a more positive tone for the entire rest of your day.
Dehydration is no joke, and we lose so much water during sleep. After you’ve taken a few deep breathes and shown your gratitude, drink a full glass of water. We can avoid headaches, fatigue, brain-fog, and many other detrimental side-effects of dehydration with this very simple bit of self-care.
When your belly is full of water and you’ve set a more positive tone for the day by showing gratitude, there is one more thing you can do. It takes even less time than the first two, but it can be much harder for some of us: Say one kind thing to yourself. Say it out loud. It can be as little and simple as “I’m doing alright,” or “I survived yesterday.” Big or small, just say one kind thing to yourself.
Caring for yourself doesn’t have to take a lot of time or money, but it’s just as important as the care we give others. We can start by spending a minute every morning. Each day we do it, the larger the payoff will be.
Warm regards,
Jimerson Adkins