If you saw the January Newsletter you know that I am not talking about making a New Year’s resolution here, but rather a deeper reflection into ourselves. Think of it more like assessing how well we do at self-care.
Self-Care is often a very misunderstood concept; it is not selfish or egocentric, it is not wrong or sinful, it is not another thing to check off on the to-do list; it is more about making sure we are taking care of our whole selves in a healthy and helpful way. It is a lifestyle, and maybe for some of us it is a totally new way of living, or maybe there are just a few tweaks here and there that need to be made. Either way, we need to believe that we are worth taking care of ourselves.
Self-care is about having compassion on ourselves. I am sure you are great at having compassion for other people, so why would that not apply to yourself as well? Self-care is having self-compassion.
It is important to notice what areas in our life we need to be healthier in. A holistic approach to self-compassion asks us to look at all areas of our life to evaluate if we are caring for ourselves fully.
A good start would be to do a self-care assessment:
The next step would be to come up with a Self-Care Plan that focuses on all areas of your life. Here is an article to help, but you do not have to follow all the categories they suggest. Make the Plan your own; your blueprint to healthy living.
And finally, a helpful practice would be to look at the way you talk to yourself about yourself. Is it self-critically or self-compassionately?
