I was recently asked what I do for self-care and I couldn’t answer the question with an honest response. Initially, I thought that I did a lot for personal self-care, like working out five to six days a week and eating a balanced diet but those are things that I should do regardless. I realized that I don’t have something I do outside of the gym. For some of us the gym might be their form of self-care but I work in my own gym and would benefit from an activity that allows me to be creative outside of it.
What is self-care? It’s taking action to preserve or improve one’s own health or taking an active role in protecting one’s own well-being.
How can we practice self-care? This is different for everyone, for me I am already an active person but I have recently started writing about questions that I get asked throughout the week or topics that I encounter. This has allowed me to become creative in a different way and it gets my thoughts and ideas onto paper. For some it could be yoga, playing a sport once a week, or crafting on the weekends. Our personal needs are so unique and so our self-care practices should be too.
Throughout the week I had a lot of conversations with clients and they all stated that they feel like they have so much to do and just can't catch up. I asked what they were doing for themselves, (i.e. dedicated “me time”) and the common answer was I don’t have time. It can be very rewarding to do things for your loved ones, children, and partners but you matter too. Every family dynamic is different but we have to make sure that we are carving some time out for ourselves. When I worked in the corporate world I often spent the day in isolation with occasional meetings but didn't have a lot of other human interaction. I found myself craving going to the gym when it was busy or going out on the week-end so I could be around other people. Fast forward five years and I am constantly interacting with people as a business owner and coach, now I would prefer to have less human interaction when I am not at the gym working. As my life has changed so has my preferred method of self-care.
Creating a new positive habit of practicing self-care has been my focus. I am trying to create some consistency in writing my weekly experiences inhabit creation. I would like to challenge everyone to take a look at what you are doing for self-care and even acknowledging that you aren’t doing something can be powerful. If you feel that you are able to make this a new habit that’s great, make sure when you are taking on new habits that it’s a solid nine or ten out of ten so you know that you can achieve it each week, write it down and put it somewhere that you can see it every day.
Let me know how your weekly habit creation has been going in the comments.
Coach Steve Volke