Friday, November 20, 2009

Self-Care, not Self-Repair!

Hello everyone! I have made it back safe and sound to sunny Florida. I am blessed with sunny weather and even slept on the plane! I can never sleep on planes. Getting a good 6-hour nap has really helped me get over jet lag quickly. I will be spending a month at home replenishing my energy and recharging during the downtime. A month is quite a long time, and if I took better care of myself on a daily basis (more on this later) I would not need such a long vacation, hence the topic of today's post.

The key point of proper self-care is whether it is performed as maintenance or damage control. Do you have bodywork done? If so, is it because you suffer from stiff shoulders (damage control), or because it feels good and you enjoy indulging yourself? (maintenance). If you postpone being good to yourself until you hit damage mode, it somewhat defeats the purpose. It becomes self-repair instead of self-care.

Treating yourself well will help prevent the need for damage control as well as shore up energy reserves that can quickly be depleted in times of severe stress, illness, or trauma. Expensive massages are not a necessity, for example hot baths with healing salts, daily meditation, a yoga routine, or a morning walk are all forms of self-care. For couples, getting a good book on massage techniques is a very low-cost way of doing bodywork with the added bonus of increasing your quality-time together.

Figure out the little things that you enjoy, and find a way to incorporate them into your daily or weekly routine. Your body and mind will thank you for it.