Taking Care of YOU!

The way you take care of yourself is what many of us health counselors refer to as primary care. It’s about taking care of you, helping you relax, nourishing the the things that make you smile. Basically doing the things that many women stop doing once they become mothers. I’m totally guilty of this. The second I became a mother my only focus was doing whatever I could do for my daughter and a lot of the things that nourished my soul fell to the wayside.

Since it did happen to me I can be the first to admit that carving time for primary care can be really hard. Especially if you’re a working mom that is riddled with guilt about being away and then wants to do nothing more than spend time with their kids. Been there, done that.

Intuitively we all know that we have to take care of ourselves in order to properly care for the ones we love but applying it is easier said than done. For a long time, while I held a full time job the only thing I really did for me was workout and while I love working out and it gave me a ton more energy it wasn’t nourishing my soul in the way that I was used to.

I’m a certified Reiki Master and spent some time at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing and have taken quite a few Angel workshops created by Doreen Virtue so spirituality and energy has been a big part of my life since my early twenties. Besides the occasional Reiki session on myself and Annabelle I wasn’t doing a whole lot to nourish that side of my life and now that I am I feel SO amazing and feel such a difference in my life.

We don’t all have the same interests or things that nourish our souls, and sometimes it takes a little bit of looking to figure out what that is for us.

A great thing to do is to make a “Primary Care Menu”. A whole list of things you can to, or want to try to nourish your soul and get you that special glow that you can only get from doing something you love. Some will probably require some alone time, some are things you can do once the kids are in bed.

Here are some of the things on my menu to give you some examples. Some are already a part of my life, some are things I want to bring back into my life and some are things I’ve always wanted to try but haven’t gotten around to yet.

Take an essential oil bath

Meditate

Journal

Do some yoga

Have a dance party

Take a knitting class

Play tennis

Read an uplifting book

Take a Jazzercise Class

Color in a coloring book (yes, I have my very own coloring book!)

Scrapbook

Now that you’ve got some ideas come up with a list that works for you and put it up somewhere you’ll see it every single day. Make it a priority to do something on your list every single day – even if that just means a 5minute bath (without a small child!) or reading a couple of pages of an uplifting book.

What are some of your favorite things? I’m always up for trying new things and would LOVE to get some of your ideas so please share!!