Irony amuses me. Promoting self-care for caregivers is what I do daily. And I give it a valiant effort to walk my talk.
Well this past week I was told that even though the respiratory virus I had for two weeks had run its course and I was feeling better, I needed to still take it easy for another 2 weeks! Of course this is not what I wanted to hear because I had spent two weeks already trying to take it easy.
The Facebook live launch of my HUG Kits was May 16 and I still went ahead with it and sounded like I was in an underground tunnel. So I was really ready to be getting back to full strength and finishing up some other projects including moving forward on the second edition of my book, “Just Tell Her To Stop; Family Stories of Eating Disorders.”
Apparently I have not practicing enough self-care and need to scale back my activities because I was still very tired and feeling dragged out. See where I’m going with the irony here?
Funny how self-care isn’t very convenient sometimes isn’t it?
When we have deadlines (real or arbitrary) it can feel like we cannot slow down. After all, our society praises being busy and productive and simply BEing
isn’t rewarded and is often seen as lazy.
So what do we do?
My big reminders to myself and you:
Value our needs.
Be gentle with ourselves.
Look at our values and choose which actions support those.
Ask ourselves, “What brings me joy?” and see how we can do more of that.
Obviously this is just a place to start. If you’re ready to really dive deep and make some long lasting shifts in how you’re practicing self-care, let’s talk. I offer free 30 minute consultations to determine if coaching might be a good fit or not.
I’m off to relax on a warm summer day. How will you value your needs today?
I hope this is helpful, and if you have any questions, email or call me and ask me any questions you have about your challenges as a family caregiver!
