Lately I’ve been really hard on myself. And by hard I mean I haven’t been listening to my body at all. It’s ironic because I am a Nurse Practitioner, and constantly find myself telling my patients the importance of listening to their bodies. Typical right? We are so focused on helping others, and providing for others in some capacity that we fail to do the same for ourselves.
We always think we know what our priorities are. If you could list your top 3 priorities, what would they be? Most people will say their children, their home and their job. Interestingly, these 3 priorities are super important, but increase our stress and anxiety. How? We always feel like we don’t have enough time to accomplish all the different tasks related to managing the home, taking care of the children and work priorities. Do you ever find yourself feeling like you are overwhelmed and there’s no way you will accomplish this or that in time? I know I have! We put so much on our plates in a 24 hour period, no wonder we are stressed and overwhelmed!
WHY SELF CARE IS SO IMPORTANT
When you are overwhelmed, overly stressed or burnt out, it affects you physical, emotionally, spiritually, socially, etc. It literally affects every area of your life, depending on how bad it is. I can sense when I’m not as fun to be around because I’ll start to get annoyed at my husband’s jokes (the same jokes I typically find attractive or hilarious), I’ll snap at the people I’m closest to over the littlest thing, I can no longer tolerate my kids and their expected behaviors for their age, I start to feel like things are just “too much” to handle, I get headaches, and I’ll feel sad or mad for reasons I’m not sure of. Who wants to be around me when I’m like that? I know I wouldn’t. What about you?
Do any of these resonate with you?
This is why self care is important! You cannot manage it all if you are not in good physical, emotional, and spiritual health. No one can, and even if you think you can, it eventually catches up to you. And when it does, it wears you down, and can break you mentally, spiritually and even physically.
I’ve seen people suffer from depression, anxiety, obesity, and unhappy marriages all from the lack of self care. They didn’t pick up on their body’s signals, telling them that they were not fun to be around; they were isolating themselves because they had too much to do; were making poor food choices everyday from a lack of time to cook or eat properly; were disconnected from their significant other because they forgot to make them a priority; didn’t have time to pray or build a relationship with God; they were constantly fearful of the future because they didn’t know if they’d achieve their life goals, etc. Forgetting to make yourself a priority can be so damaging to multiple areas of your life!
The reality is life will ALWAYS have moments that seem difficult, uncertain, discouraging or hard to bear. That won’t change. How you handle these moments can ultimately change your life for the worst or the better. Do you see why self care is so important?
“What surprises me most is “Man”, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he doesn’t enjoy the present; The result being he doesn’t live in the present or the future; He lives as if he’s never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived.” – Dalai Lama
Let’s challenge ourselves to practice self care daily. Next post will cover how I practice self care, and how you can too!
Until next time,
