A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about self-care and how important it is for us to take care of ourselves. Not only was I stressing its importance to readers, I was also reminding myself that taking care of self helps one to remain centered, balanced, and at peace with life. After sharing my personal thoughts on self-care, I received some great feedback from you guys! I asked you all how you practice (or would begin to practice) self care and these are some of your wonderful responses:
♥ When I was in graduate school, and I was in the counseling field - that's when I really took self-care seriously. I was working full-time, going to school part-time and of course, was in a relationship - there's just too much to juggle on top of pages and pages of readings to do and papers to type. Having my alone time was (still is) a must. I also went to the gym more, ate healthier, etc. To this day, alone time is a part of my self-care routine. I still try to get enough sleep, I drink lots of water, go to the gym, eat healthier (i.e. lots of fruits, less sweets, if I want sweets, it's more of fruit snacks, such as dried food), I like to take long walks with my ipod, I read as much as I can, of course, blogging and tweeting with all of my favorite bloggers is a part of my self-care regimen. It really is important to do self-care. It feels good and if I take care of myself, then I'm better to care for others. ~Reni
♥ I have been trying to implement some practices into my regimen like doing breathing exercises and sitting in silence for 15min/day. Idk its weird but taking the time out to clean and organize my room really helps me. I just lock my door (I have two nieces lol), blast some music, and get to work. I channeled my inner Ty Pennington last week and moved around furniture and all. It was like a mini therapy session and I'm so proud of the outcome. ~Joey
♥ Having a 7 month old can sometimes get real hectic. Taking care of a child is a 24 hour job and can be overwhelming at times. I think mothers especially need that alone time to keep their sanity and to stay in tuned with themselves. After having a child i realized how much my alone time really meant before having her. I love my daughter with all that is me but sometimes i just need a "Ahhhhhh" moment. I just need some time to collect my thoughts and let go. Now im working on a schedule for my family as well as myself.This way i can get my... as Whitley would say RELAX, RELATE, RELEASE on lol. ~Elle
♥ I so need to take better care of myself mentally. There are not enough hours in the day and sometimes the phrase "burnt out" is an understatement. One of the things I am excited about trying is meditating. There are several health benefits to it and overall sometimes you just have to learn to quiet your thoughts and just breathe .~ The BK Vixen
♥ Just today I vowed to start taking better care of myself. Drinking more water and taking better care of my skin is first on my list. I have been doing so much that I haven't taken time for myself. I also think I am going to start journaling to sift through some of my thoughts and create my game plan for the next few months. ~Mimi of Unlikely Martha
♥ Most of all, I need to improve my prayer life. I find that when I stay closely connected the blinders come off with the quickness. ~Nellie of Brooklyn Active Mama
♥ I've actually been meaning to implement some self-care tips upon myself as of recently due to me feeling a bit "weathered" both physically and internally. A lot of my fatigue and lost-space of time comes from my new work as an editor. Recently I have had a bit of dry skin and hair, which is a result of dehydration and neglecting certain parts of my diet. Fortunately, Kim [of KimberlyLuxe] gave me some tips for how to "disguise" water casually into my daily routine without it appearing to be a "16 oz., 4 times a day" burden. I hope to drink more water along with take vitamins daily. So basically in short, two things I would like to start practicing soon for self-care reasons are: 1) Time management by way of writing more things down and getting into the habit of cracking open a physical agenda daily... versus just hitting the "snooze" on my Blackberry calender for each reminder that DOES come up. 2) Going back to paying attention to my skin and hair. Which is something I was religious about before and have since slacked on since my career. Bad skin and hair is not something that bothers me for vain reasons. It bothers me because that means internally, my homeostasis is imbalanced and that something is missing from my diet and is now only beginning to show on my exterior. I truly hope to stick to vitamins, water and more rest. ~Soraya
♥ I have a hard time saying NO. I've learned that YES is a commitment and NO is a choice. Sometimes, you can't be there ALL of the time and that is okay. That is LIFE. Some things that I do for a self check in, spend as much alone time as possible. I have people that visit my house daily and although I love these people, I need peace sometimes (we all do). Time to think, smile and be at peace on my own is important to me. I drink lots of water, laugh often and write down EVERYTHING. I also read or listen to audio books, walk (daily) and frequent the gym. I would love to start adding other fun things to my self-care check. ~Daja of No Boiz Allowed
Thank you ladies for sharing your thoughts! I appreciate you! I would also like to thank each and every one of you who reads the blog, shares your thoughts in the comments section, interacts with me on Twitter and/or interacts with the blog via Facebook. I am thankful for all the new followers as well as those of you who have been following for some time now. You guys are the greatest and you absolutely rock!
