Today, let's look at how rest can be incorporated into our daily lifestyle.
Could it be that the reason we get over-stressed and depressed is that we have gone too long without deep rest?
‘Depressed’ … ‘deep rest’. Is that homophone just a coincidence?
What Self-Care Really Looks Like
If time and money are the biggest barriers to giving yourself adequate self-care, we need to be reminded what self-care really is. It may sometimes seem like a challenge to make time for self-care, but we can learn to adopt micro self-care habits that simply become part of how we naturally operate.
Although a spa day doesn’t hurt, it’s a means to an end when it comes to what self-care is all about. Self-care is coming home to who we are right now. It does not require getting some treatment or an altered state that ought to change us into some fabulous new person.
Self-care is unlearning and remembering who we are at our core. Who were were as kids before we allowed our job, society, and external influence to define who were are?
Self-care is creating a safe space where you can get real with yourself. A space filled with grace for what is good and true. It naturally provides a margin for leisure, rest, and recovery.
Take 10 Minutes for You
If taking time for self-care is not already a habit and we don’t plan it, it will never happen.
First, we need to decide to make regular visits with ourselves, even if just for a few minutes. It’s a matter of finding small ways to give yourself extra personal space that works for you. That could look like showing up extra early to appointments so you’re forced to wait, with yourself. Or perhaps setting a morning alarm 10 minutes earlier than you usually wake up.
Once we have that extra bit of space set aside, it’s all us in how we want to give love and attention to the body, mind, and soul.
However it’s hard to know what we most need until we have entered that quite space.
Once we’re in that nourishing space, only then, will we know how to best engage (or more like not engage) in a way that will provide quality self-care. You might feel like journaling, taking a nap, meditating, read a book, making art …
Trust yourself.
Quiet … listen … you already know what you need.