The Ultimate Guide To Long Lasting Self Care

          Okay okay, I know that self-care is this term that is being thrown around left, right, and centre but have you ever slowed down and really thought about what it means? For a while I watched women throw up bath pictures on social media and think that was self-care. I thought that moving my body every day was self-care. I have thought that sleeping all day is self-care. Being in the health and wellness industry I flirt with different ways of self-care all of the time but I got really frustrated being on social media and women bringing others down for how they were taking care of themSelves. Ladies, all of the above is Self-care and guess what, we are only able to take care of ourSelves and know what we need, not others. So step number one when it comes to self-care, stay in your own lane. Self-care is more than just throwing up your picture of your dreamy bubble bath, it’s taking the time to actually slow down to receive the bubble bath. Are you letting yourSelf receive your Self-Care?

          Self-care is the act of caring for your Self. That means taking a birds-eye view of your overall well being and taking inventory of what you need to feel your best. True self-care involves some TLC and deep honesty on a personal level to actually give yourSelf what you need. It means consistently checking in with yourSelf throughout your day, week, month. Check in’s don’t need to be dramatic, they are little moments where you choose to be present with all of you. What could a check-in look like -

 

Eyes closed, a hand on your heart and your belly and checking in  A journal session, nothing like some quality 1:1 time with you  Agenda/ planner inventory (we will dive into this later on)

 

          To truly lean into real self-care we need to move away from the idea that it’s selfish because it’s not. We are all composed of a mind, a body, emotions and a soul and a lot of us only give light to our mind and how we use it and our body and how we move it. Self-care invites us to zoom out and begin to care for ourSelves on a deeper level so that we can then serve our communities in bigger ways. In today’s society self-sacrifice is valued but how will a society built on burn-out survive long term. Choosing to love ourSelves and take care of ourSelves has become a rebellion, and the kind I can get on board with. 

          I want to make self-care easier for you. I get it’s easy to know when something doesn’t feel right in your life but how do you then put a self-care practice into place to nourish the part of you that’s out of balance. I’ve broken it down so self-care becomes more consistent for all of us. Basically, we need to fill seven life buckets to feel whole and loved in our lives. Those buckets are -  foundation, creativity, movement, relationships, purpose, the self, and joy. When we aren’t giving attention to all of these on a pretty regular basis that nagging feeling comes in that something’s off. So when looking to choose a self-care ritual you have the opportunity to be intentional with your TLC. Here is a little low down on the buckets 

 

The foundation of our lives revolves around money, food and our home  Creativity in our lives dances with play and leaning into the ebb and flow + simple pleasures of life - art, music, dance, cooking, sex  Movement is how we take care of our bodies, think exercise, doctors appointments, dentist, etc  Relationships is bang on, think your friendships, your family, yourSelf, colleagues, overall how are your connections with others  Purpose refers to your job or your side hustle, why are you here, how are you using your voice to serve the world  The Self, are you taking  time to embody all of you, do you have alone time, do you check in - this arguably the most important  Joy, you guessed it, happiness, do you trust joy, do you feel joy often, do you invite more joy into your life 

 

          You can already see and maybe start to evaluate where you stand in the buckets. Now, the first step is to just get familiar with the buckets in your life. The second step is to be honest with yourSelf and where you’re at. A great way to make sure you are getting your fill is to begin to record it. 

          I absolutely love bringing my buckets to life in my agenda, yes a paper one because I am old school like that.  This way when I am feeling off  I can really see the rainbow of my buckets come to life and pinpoint where I may need some love. I call this taking inventory. When I feel off I sit down pull out the old agenda and give her a look. I’ve created a colour coding system so when I do fill a bucket I record it in a certain colour  - I love pretty visuals but this could also be done black and white, on your phone or anywhere else that works well for you. I use the system like this . . .

 

Foundation | Red  Creativity |  Orange  Movement |  Yellow  Relationships |  Green  Purpose |  Light Blue  The Self |  Purple  Joy |  Navy Blue 

 

          So when I have those days or weeks that I know something is just not right I head on over to my agenda and see what’s missing. Personally, I notice when I don’t spend regular time with my foundation and my money that can really get to me or if I get obsessed with work and don’t see my friends I feel off. When I don’t move for a while I notice I get into my head a lot and it’s time to schedule in a work-out. 

          Through this system, I learned what I need, and when I am out of balance, and why. Dancing with this way of organizing my time and nourishing my life has helped to feel better as mySelf and honestly more in control of my own health. I have a better understanding of what I need to feel good, I have better life balance and I have this kick ass tool that helps me balance back out my time + energy. This has been the ultimate gift to my Self Care rituals and I can’t say it enough how much we all need to zoom out and begin to fill all of our buckets. It won’t happen over night but you are SO worth this. Happy Self-caring. 

 

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