Imagine you’re writing a to-do list. You write these lists daily to maintain productivity and prevent yourself from forgetting the most important tasks. Laundry, grocery shopping, getting the mail, taking the kids to soccer practice, responding to emails, or paying bills take the top place of our daily to-do list. How is it that silly mundane chores are the top priority of our lives?
Surely these tasks are important, but I think it’s time to take a different approach to our day.
Today, you write your name at the very top. Your name is listed at #1. Go ahead, write your name down at the top. How does that feel? For once you are the top priority of your life. Visualize that for a moment and take a deep breath.
Has it been a long time since your list looked like this? I am sure that your daily life is filled with a busy calendar, endless chores, and caring for other people. Have these taken away your ability to care for yourself and do things that you love? There is no more room for excuses. Today, you can change that and it is the best time to make a change.
The beauty of setting goals and starting new habits is that they can begin whenever you want. It is essential to care for your mental and physical health daily. I want you to be your own biggest fan. For this care to be effective, it needs to be consistent. This means that you need to stick it out even after a few days or when it gets difficult.
Keeping the habit consistent for 60 days will allow the habit to become part of your lifestyle. To keep yourself accountable, tell a friend about your new habit. This will allow another person to become part of the process. This is a great way to keep in contact with a friend or family member and become involved in their life.
To keep yourself motivated, you can remind yourself of your goals by hanging up sticky notes around your space or changing the background of your phone to a phrase that will keep your eyes fixed on the goal. Are you sold that you need to care for yourself? I am sure that you want to know how you can do this. This self-care will look different for each person since each person has a different way of caring for themselves.
This will be the best decision that you’ve ever made. I think that most people think caring about yourself means getting your nails done or going on a shopping spree. Those are fun ways to treat yourself, however, there is no emotional or intellectual stimulation when doing those activities. This will leave your wallet empty and only temporarily make you happy. This is not something that you should be doing every single day anyways since it is unrealistic.
There are more effective ways to care for yourself that you can implement daily! Some ways that I care for myself is by using essential oils, walking around my campus, reading my bible, calling my family, getting lunch with a friend, stretching my body, using a face mask, taking a few deep breaths, listening to my favorite music, journaling about my day, hammocking, watching the sunset or using positive affirmations.
These are some of my favorite ways to wind down and care for myself throughout the day or throughout my entire week. I hope that you are inspired to implement a new habit into your routine and set aside time to care for yourself. Your future self will thank you.
